“Maestrale” Award | best feature film
Awarded to the best film in the feature film section by the Babel jury: Enrico Pau (president); Monica Dovarch, visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker and producer; Alessandro Gagliardo, director and editor; Julie Perreard, director and editor; Sabrina Rasom, linguist and director of the Ladin Cultural Institute and the Ladin Museum of Fassa.
When the Walnut Leaves Turn Yellow
by Mehmet Ali Konar, Türkiye, 2025, m. l.: kirdki-zazaki
Director Mehmet Ali Konar receives the Maestrale Award
Jury motivation: The Maestrale Award is given to the film When The Walnut Leaves Turn Yellow for the director’s extraordinary ability to bring the viewer closer to the suffering of the protagonist, accompanying us on his last journey on earth, making us perceive his love for life, for justice, for his people, his horror of violence, and, despite everything, his profound hope for the future.
Special mention: Nessun posto al mondo, by Vanina Lappa, Italy, 2023, m. l.: Cilento language
Jury motivation: The special mention of the Maestrale Award is awarded to Nessun posto al Mondo for its ability to tell with empathy and poetry a reality still immersed in an agropastoral culture that, tenaciously, tries to resist every change. The magnificent main character moves in a border area where archaic and modern challenge each other, leaving wounds on the field that, fortunately, do not heal.
“Maestrale” Award | best documentary film
Awarded to the best film in the documentary section by the Babel jury: Enrico Pau (president); Monica Dovarch, visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker and producer; Alessandro Gagliardo, director and editor; Julie Perreard, director and editor; Sabrina Rasom, linguist and director of the Ladin Cultural Institute and the Ladin Museum of Fassa.
Dartaș (Carpenter)
by Xelil Sehragerd, Türkiye, 2023, m. l.: kurdî
Director Xelil Sehragerd accepts the Maestrale Award via video message
Jury motivation: The Maestrale Award for Documentaries is given to Dartaș – Carpenter for the strength of its message, which is very timely in these tragic times of war. It is moving to witness the precious craftsmanship with which the limbs of people injured in one of the many wars that afflict our planet are reconstructed. The director wants to tell us that healing and rebuilding are a necessary act of love.
Special mention: Gathering Firewood, by Liivo Niglas, Estonia, 2024, m. l.: nenets
Jury motivation: The special mention goes to Gathering Firewood for the extraordinary anthropological and visual quality of a work that tells the story of the life of a community isolated from everything, showing us the profound relationship with a hostile Nature from which every day we must wrest resources to feed, heat and guarantee the existence of one’s social group.
“Maestrale” Award | best short film
Awarded to the best film in the short film section by the Babel jury: Enrico Pau (president); Monica Dovarch, visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker and producer; Alessandro Gagliardo, director and editor; Julie Perreard, director and editor; Sabrina Rasom, linguist and director of the Ladin Cultural Institute and the Ladin Museum of Fassa.
Azheh
by Hadi Rezayati Charan, Iran, 2023, m. l.: talysh
Producer Mahdi Rezayati Charan receives the Maestrale Award
Jury motivation: The Maestrale Award for short films is awarded to Azheh. What struck the jury is the director’s ability to transform, with a keen artistic sense, cinema into a sort of ritual that takes place in a timeless place. A long dialogue with death that manages to tell, in a rough but very elegant way, how deep and sacred the bond of human beings with their land and its language can be.
Special mention: Ultraveloci, by Paolo Bonfadini & Davide Morando, Italy, 2023, m. l.:
Tortona dialect
Jury motivation: The special mention of the Maestrale Award is assigned to the short film Ultraveloci for the directors’ ability to play with genre cinema without ever losing sight of the strength of an authorial gaze that isolates, in a very original filmic context, the figure of an actor who strikes the viewer’s heart.
“Unica” Città di Cagliari Award
Awarded by the students of the University of Cagliari:
Maria Atzori, Simona Cabiddu, Cristina Cera, Antonio Cirella, Dario Costeri, Simona Palmas, Stefania Zedda, Alessandro Zedde.
Abele
by Fabian Volti, Italy, 2025, m. l.: sardinian / bedouin dialect of Palestine
Director Fabian Volti receives the “Unica” Award
Motivation: A dialogue between two realities whose silences conceal past and present presences and conflicts. An invitation to brotherhood through the pastoral testimonies of our land and the Middle East. As witnesses of the University of Cagliari in this festival, we intend to unite our voice to the cry of oppressed peoples, to denounce the indifference and hatred that turn their backs on the genocide in Palestine and in all other theaters of war. For having brought together, with the art of image and narration, two worlds so distant in history and culture, and so close in the union between the sense of impotence and that of revenge, the Unica jury awards the prize to Abele by Fabian Volti.
Special mention: Arzela From Amed, by Elif Yiğit Paech & Johannes Paech, Germany, 2024, m. l.: kurdî
Motivation: The resilience of a young woman in a political context that does not allow freedom of expression. The individual and collective struggle for the self-determination of the Kurdish people. For this reason the award goes to Arzela From Amed.
“Umanitaria” Award
Awarded by the members and the public of the Società Umanitaria offices in Italy, in Milan, Rome, Naples, Cagliari, Alghero and Carbonia.
Konin
by Matilda Butler, UK, 2024, m. l.: kernewek
Director Matilda Butler
Motivation: The film, set in Cornwall and spoken in the Cornish language, explores the themes of loss, friendship and the inevitability of change through the eyes and perception of a group of children, who see their favorite playground preparing to host a large supermarket. The director makes us feel the sensitivity of the little ones in the imperceptible shifts of meaning, triggered by a change felt especially by the youngest of the protagonists, for whom the perception of reality is not exactly as it seems. A direction very attentive to the child’s gaze is rewarded, conveyed with a light narrative construction and underlined by a transparent musical plot.
“Diritto di parola” Award
Assigned by high school students in Cagliari:
Maryia Artsiushkevich, Lucrezia Casula, Antonio Cocco, Elisa Deiana, Valentina Ena, Giovanni Fornea, Mariasole Melis, Irene Meloni, Enrico Mura, Aurora Pili, Luca Pirelli, Mario Restivo, Gabriele Sanna.
La punizione del prete
by Francesco Tomba, Chiara Tesser, Italy, 2023, m. l.: sardinian
Director Francesco Tomba’s father receives the “Diritto di parola” award
Motivation: We, as a jury of high school students, decided to award the prize to the short film La punizione del prete for several reasons that were also discussed after watching the shorts. There were many details that we noticed – such as the attention paid to the shots done in a workmanlike manner: the latter in fact enhance the typical landscapes of our land, with several incredibly suggestive shots from above. The study of the costumes is also well done and manages to take viewers back to the period in which the short is set, namely Sardinia at the beginning of the last century. The acting of the actors also contributes to the success of the work: the naturalness with which they alternate Sardinian and Italian in the dialogues gives realism to the story.
Special mention: Superbi, by Nikola Brunelli, Italy, 2024, m. l.: Marche dialect
Motivation: We believe that the theme, of a social nature and inspired by a true story, is very current and well represented, also through irony: which shows how ridiculous and senseless the extreme conservatism and xenophobia of a part of the Ascoli population are. Even from a technical point of view it is executed in an optimal way, and we were particularly struck by the use of two-dimensional animation, which in our opinion is very original.
“One Wor(l)d” Award
Awarded by a delegation of migrants living in Sardinia:
Donatus Chine, Karim Diarra, Farhan Ejaz, Harouna Gouem, Jose Albeiro Martinez Hurtado, Haroun Yars Misbahou, Mario Alejandro Ramos Perez, Anisuzzaman Shamim, Aboubacar Soumah, Haroun Yars Misbahou.
Frarìa
by Alberto Diana, Italy, 2024, m. l.: sardinian
Director Alberto Diana, on the right, with the “One Wor(l)d” award
Motivation: Frarìa sensitively combines a personal story and a collective story, telling a moment of growth that also becomes a political and moral choice. Through the Sardinian language and the gestures of everyday life, the film shows the strength of the family: the relationship between the two brothers is the heart of the story. The elder, with his example, helps the younger not to be afraid and to say “no” to injustice. Inspired by one of the stories told to the director by his grandfather, Frarìa is also a gesture of love and family transmission. A film that reminds us that growing up also means learning to choose which side to be on.
Special mention: Art, by Ben Kernow, UK, 2023, m. l.: kernewek
Motivation: For having told with irony a story of difficulty, transforming it into a message of hope and rebirth. Art reminds us of the importance of believing in ourselves, of knowing how to reinvent ourselves and of following our dreams even when everything seems to be going wrong.
“Italymbas” Award
Awarded by the popular juries of Italian linguistic minorities to films spoken in minority languages, protected by Law 482/1999, of Catania, Ostana (CN), Dolianova (CA), Martignano (LE) and Udine.
Si Vîf – Une Vite de Musicant
by Dorino Minigutti, Italy, 2023, m. l.: furlan
Director Dorino Minigutti receives the “Italymbas” award
Motivation: A poetic and musical voice, which investigates existential and cultural depths, without losing the power of communication and simplicity. The words are calm and each has its own space, between one silence and another. The same goes for emotions, which become vehicles of a personal memory capable of being introspective and social at the same time. The path of a Friulian singer-songwriter is the path of an entire linguistic community, which faces the challenges of its time, without forgetting where it comes from. A sensitive and delicate portrait of a sensitive and delicate soul, Si Vif – Une vite di musicant by Dorino Minigutti is the soundtrack to the life of a man but also of several generations of Friulians, a complete and refined work, which delves into the past and the present. It is a film that expresses a minority language with maturity and passion, bringing its audience closer to cultural and linguistic issues that concern parts of the Italian population that need to represent themselves in this way, without folkloristic stereotypes and with attention to complexity. The Italymbas Award of the ninth Babel Film Festival goes to Si Vif – Une vite di musicant by Dorino Minigutti.
Ostana Award
Awarded by a jury of members chosen by the homonymous school. In collaboration with Premio Ostana – Scritture in Lingua madre / Chambra d’oc (Roccabruna).
Si Seus Accappiaus
by Simone Paderi, Italy, 2019, m. l.: sardinian
Director Simone Paderi receives the Ostana Award
Motivation: We all had a grandmother. Often it is the grandmother you go to visit at her house and she waits for you sitting in the living room, while in the kitchen something is boiling and you can smell it. She makes you a coffee and asks you how you are. But you don’t feel like talking about yourself, you just want to listen to her voice, and let yourself be transported by her memories. A very close-up and little more, that’s what Si seus accappiaus by Simone Paderi is. Wrinkles and eyes in the shadows, a few laughs, a silence and a sigh to tell the story of an encounter that was a great love story. The archive material that seals the few words, giving an image of the past that is as brief as it is evocative. For being a tiny but great cinematic object, which delicately conveys a love and an intimacy, the same love and the same intimacy that resonates in every mother tongue, Si seus accappiaus by Simone Paderi receives the Ostana Award at the ninth Babel Film Festival.
AAMOD Award
Jury composed of the public of the Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico of Rome.
Z.O. (Eastern zone)
by Loris G. Nese, Italy, 2023, m. l.: Salerno dialect
Director Loris G. Nese
Motivation: For the fertile contamination between the amateur materials of Vincenzo Napoli before becoming mayor, the text of Epifanio Ajello and the animation, which generates a mythology of Salerno and its fishermen and then, in the wake of a punk and street tradition that seems to meander in the work of Loris Giuseppe Nese, attacks and dismantles it from below with the force of the archive and the animated line.
My Culture Award
Jury composed of the editorial board of the My Culture+ platform.
Femmenell – City of Mermaids
by Andrea Fortis, Italy, 2024, m. l.: Neapolitan dialect
Director Andrea Fortis
FICC audience Award
Awarded by the jury composed of the FICC Film Clubs.
Z.O. (Eastern zone)
by Loris G. Nese, Italy, 2023, m. l.: Salerno dialect
Director Loris G. Nese
Motivation: The film, with an unconventional use of images and a careful writing, conveys all the contradictions of life in an urban suburb. With bold narrative techniques it contextualizes a typical story, in which the destinies of the young people seem linked to those of their fathers, underlining in the end the dramatic sense of belonging.
Cineclub Fedic Cagliari Award
Awarded by a Jury made up of members of the Cineclub Fedic of Cagliari.
Lingua Mater
by Massimo Garlatti-Costa, Italy, 2024, m. l.: catalan, furlan, guardiolo, guascon, occitan, swahili
Director Massimo Garlatti-Costa
Motivation: Against the tendency towards homologation, Lingua Mater takes on the value of a fundamental document, thanks to which the author, in providing a precious testimony on linguistic diversity, has composed an enchanting symphony.
“Diari di Cineclub” Award
Awarded by the jury of the online magazine “Diari di Cineclub” of Rome.
Le Pacha, ma mère et moi
by Nevine Gerits, Belgium, 2023, m. l.: kurdish
Director Nevine Gerits
Motivation: For the ability to represent the layered complexity of the transmission, both on a personal and public level, of a cultural and political legacy. Director Nevine Gerits starts from her own family history to tell the difficulties of a dispersed, oppressed people with a strong resistant spirit, in continuous search for political recognition. The mother’s political militancy marks the family dynamics and structures its civil awareness, but it is a burden whose legacy needs a critical rereading in a personal key.
