PAOLO SORRENTINO AWARDS YOUNG TALENTS IN THE ENEL DIGITAL CONTEST

The famous director will award the prizes to the winners of the CO2-free competition for video-makers sponsored by Enel and dedicated to sustainable energy issues. With help from AzzeroCO2, the awards ceremony will be a zero-emissions event as well.

Rome, 6 May 2009 – The Enel Digital Contest, the international competition for young video-makers sponsored by Enel and the Amici del Future Film Festival Association, will be saluting the winners of the fifth edition at a celebratory evening attended by experts from the world of cinema.

The director Paolo Sorrentino will preside over the ceremony, to be held in the imposing setting of the Casa del Cinema, where the prizes will be awarded for the best works in the contest that for five years has been highlighting the production of audiovisual works on sustainable energy-related issues.

The director of Il Divo, one of Italian cinema’s most innovative and original talents, will be joined by the leading film and communication professionals who made up the jury: Laura Delli Colli (journalist and President of the National Union of Italian Cinema Journalists), Victor Matizen (Chairman of the Russian Federation’s Film Critics’ Guild), Mario Morcellini (Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Rome’s La Sapienza University), Silvia Toso (editor of RAI Radio 3’s Hollywood Party programme), Mario Tozzi (geologist, National Research Council chief researcher, author and television presenter) and Gianluca Comin (Director of External Relations at Enel).

Several other experts who contributed in assigning the special prizes will also take part:
Matt Aitken (VFX Supervisor, Weta Digital), Giovanni Bietti (composer and music expert), Cipriana Dall’Orto (co director of  Donna Moderna) and Andrea Seminara (Director Marketing and Communication of AzzeroCO2 ).

The winners selected by the jury of experts will be joined on stage by the winners chosen by the over 25,000 Internet users who voted on the website: a high level of participation that underscores the growth of the Web 2.0-oriented sector as a tool for fostering creativity among young people.
The number of entries submitted by video-makers from around the world has continued to rise, with 326 competitors and 150 works making it into the finals: a 26% increase in entries compared with the previous edition.

The works that made it into the finals were of high quality and adopted various narrative and technical approaches (from live action to traditional animation and 3D) to address the contest’s central theme, “The power of energy”: a highly topical issue of great interest that the young contestants were called upon to explore from the point of view of safeguarding our planet’s environment.

Other steps in this direction were the introduction of a new special prize for the best short for the environment and the publication of a guide containing advice on shooting “environment-friendly” videos, which was sent to all the competitors and is available on the enel.it/digitalcontest site.

What is more, this year’s Enel Digital Contest is the first CO2-free competition for video-makers in Italy, thus confirming the attention paid to the environment.
Thanks to AzzeroCO2, the carbon dioxide emissions generated in the process of organising the initiative have been offset by creating a small green area (with more than 20 trees) in the Po and dell’Orba River Park.
The on-line voters also contributed to expanding this green area, with a new tree being planted for every 1,000 votes, making a total of 25 trees.
The awards ceremony, too, is a CO2-free event, offset by the planting of the 5 trees that will help expand the Enel Digital Contest green area even more.

As its last major innovation, this fifth edition ushers in a flood of special prizes: from the prize for the best soundtrack (in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia) to one for the best animated and/or special-effects short (in collaboration with the New Zealand Consulate General); from the prize for the most creative female entry (with support from the Donna Moderna magazine) to one for the best communications idea (in conjunction with UniFERPI, the students’ section of the Italian Public Relations Federation) and the prizes awarded by the special juries of students from the many universities that support the initiative with their patronage.

For information:

Press Office
Giovanna Mazzarella (+39 348 3805201) & Cristina Scognamillo (+39 335 294961)
mazzarella@fastwebnet.it, cristinascognamillo@hotmail.com

Enel SpA – Public Relations – Advertising and New Media
Via Regina Margherita 137 –198 Rome – Italy
Tel.: +39 06 83057026, E-mail: digitalcontest@enel.com

Associazione Amici del Future Film Festival
Via del Pratello 21/2 - 40122 Bologna
Tel.: +39 051 2960672; Fax: +39 051 6567133
E-mail: enelcontest@futurefilmkids.org

Eleonora Boscolo (Amici del Future Film Festival Association press officer)
Tel.: +39 051 2960664 - E-mail: press@futurefilmkids.org

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