JUDGING TEAM 2021
AISHA CERAMI - WRITER
Aisha Cerami, daughter of Oscar-winning screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami and actress Mimsy Farmer, is an Italian writer and screenwriter. She worked also as actress with great directors like Giuseppe Bertolucci, Taviani brothers, Peter Greenaway. And she worked also as singer and lyricist with Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani. Aisha Cerami has grown influenced by the “power of words”, and she made this her life. In recent years she devoted herself solely to her true passion: writing. She writes stories, screenplays, novels. Currently she works for one of the major Italian publishing houses, Rizzoli.
YARI GUGLIUCCI - ACTOR/WRITER
Yari Gugliucci was born in Salerno. After graduating in Sociology, he moved to the United States to study acting. In New York he attended workshops given by Susan Strasberg, Arthur Penn and Michael Margotta.He Founded the M.A.S.(modern acting system). He appeared in many films including: Ferdinando e Carolina and Francesca e Nunziata by Lina Wertmuller, and many more. He also had parts in foreign film productions: My House in Umbria directed by Richard Loncraine (HBO), A Room With a View directed by Nicholas Renton (ITV1). His work includes TV series and dramas: Gossip Girl directed by David Warren, Luisa Sanfelice directed by Paolo e Vittorio Taviani, and others. Stand up at Carlyle Hotel directed by Woody Allen. His various roles in the theatre have included: Caliban in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Rebinsky’s version where he appeared with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Klein. He wrote two books (Billy Sacramento) and (Billy Sacramento 2).
ROBERTA MASTROMICHELE - ACTRESS CHOREOGRAPHER
Roberta Mastromichele is an actress, dancer, choreographer and artistic director of concerts, TV shows and events. She lives between Rome and New York. She started working in 1998 as an assistant of choreography of the well-known art director Luca Tommassini, participating in video clips and TOURS of the greatest Italian and international pop stars such as: Pavarotti, Robbie Williams, Ricky Martin, Kylie Minogue, Geri Halliwell, Pharrel Williams, Snoop Dog, Usher, Claudio Baglioni, Giorgia. In 2008 she was one of the main dancers of the cast of the Hollywood movie "NINE" directed by Rob Marshall, where she performed aside of stars like Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Daniel Day Lewis. In 2010 she worked as a dancer and as an assistant- choreographer, preparing Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp for the dance scene in the movie "The Tourist" directed by the Oscar-winner: Florian Henkel Vondonnesmark. She works as an actress in theatre from 10 years now.
ANILA NUGMANOVA - PRODUCER
Anila Nugmanova is an award winning producer of Kazakh origin based in Los Angeles. She has remarkable experiences of working on various motion pictures in Kazakhstan, Canada, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos and United States.
Among her work are projects with Jamie M. Dagg on the international movie River that became an official selection at the Toronto Film Festival in 2015, a collaboration with Hollywood oldie Jeff Vespa on the internationally acclaimed feature film Paris Song and the outstanding Timur Bekmambetov on the web series Dead of Night together with Snapchat. She currently develops and produces films at Bazelevs production company that has recently signed a deal with Universal Studios to make 5 movies in Screenlife format, an innovative film language invented by the company. The company stands behind the successful projects such as Wanted, Night Watch, Unfriended, Searching and many more.
GIULIA MAZZONI - COMPOSER/PIANIST
Giulia Mazzoni is an Italian composer and pianist, she studied at Conservatorio G.Verdi of Milan. In 2013, her first album “Giocando con i bottoni” won the prestigious “Premio Ciampi” and she performed at the Christmas Concert (Rai 2) with Dolores O’ Riordan, Patty Smith, Asaf Avidan. Giulia performed in very important theaters in Italy and abroad like Oriental Arts Center of Shanghai, Auditorium Parco della Musica of Roma, Jinwan Grand Theater of Tianjin, Blue Note Milano and many others. On 2016 she released her latest album “Room 2401” with Sony Music Italy, Sony Music China and Sony Music Taiwan, where the artist performs regularly and enjoyed a great success with three sold-out tours Tianjin, Xi’an, Chongqing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Beijing, Nanning, Putien. In this project she collaborated with Maestro Michael Nyman creating a special version of “The departure” for two pianos. Currently Giulia is working on her new album with Sony Music and in July 2019 she will return to China for a fourth tour.
MASSIMILIANO MAUCERI - DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER
Born and raised in Florence (Italy), Massimiliano is a film director and screenwriter, and founder and director of Florence Film Awards. He had a degree in film directing at the Immagina Film School of Florence. Between 1995-2003 he worked as assistant director, editor, camera operator, for more than 20 music videos and commercials (Gucci, Tim, Gas Jeans, UnoAerre Jewellery, Piaggio, Coop, etc). In 2000 he has taught film directing at Immagina Film School of Florence. Between 2000-2003 he has edited and conducted the movies column for Interpuntonet magazine. He has been a Jury member for: Roma Fiction Fest, London Indie International Film Festival, World Music & Independent Film Festival (Washington D.C), New York International Screenplay, Tulipani di Seta Nera Festival in Rome. He wrote and directed nine short films and one commercial and he wrote four feature-length screenplays. He won 144 awards (47 first places) around the world: 89 awards (31 first places) with his short films and 55 awards (16 first places) with his feature-length screenplays.
STELLA SACCA' - ACTRESS/WRITER
Born in Rome, Italy, and based in New York, Stella is an actress, playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has been working in Theater since the age of 16 as an actress and started writing and producing when she was 23 after graduating in Languages at the University Roma Tre. Among all her productions, she was awarded for several plays including “How To Become Widows Without Affecting the Criminal Record", “There It Comes The Light, “My Birthday", “Lions Don’t Hug". She also co-wrote, acted and co-produced the short movie L’Appuntamento (The Date), awarded with the Golden Globe in 2013. She is currently writing her first feature film in English and she is working on her first direction of the Off Broadway play Lions Don’t Hug, selected at the New York Theater Festival and on stage at the end of January 2020. In 2018 she founded the blog Ninablablà.
MICHELE DIOMA' - DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Michele Diomà (1983) film producer and director. In 2019 he presented the world premiere of "Dance again with me Heywood!" at New York University, a feature film with special guest, Academy Award Winner James Ivory. In 2016 he co-produced and directed "Sweet Democracy", the last movie project in which Nobel Prize Winner playwright Dario Fo takes part. In 2014 he directed "Born in the U. S.E." a documentary that celebrates the 120th birthday of Cinema, featured by Francesco Rosi, Donald Ranvaud and Academy Award Winners Giuseppe Tornatore and Luis Bacalov.
CARLOTTA GALMARINI - ACTRESS
Carlotta Galmarini is an actress originally born in Leghorn, but living in Rome from her childhood. She studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, then later graduated with a degree in Literature and History. She began acting during her studies in Paris and she continued her studies in New York with Susan Batson and in Europe with June Jasmine Davis. She speaks Italian, French, English and Spanish. She has been working as an actress in television, cinema and theatre winning in 2018 some awards in Los Angeles, Toronto and Las Vegas as best leading role actress for the film “The Mirror“ directed by Massimiliano Mauceri. She worked even in the movie Maria per Roma directed by Karen Di Porto and winner of the Globi D’Oro, in Television for the series 1992 directed by Giuseppe Gagliardi and we will see her in some new projects.
ABLAY NURMANBETOV - SCREENWRITER & DIRECTOR
Ablay Nurmanbetov is an award-winning screenwriter and director well-known for the short movie “The Burning Blue” that participated in 40 festivals and received 16 awards around the globe including nomination from Oscar qualifying The Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival. One of his recent works include film “Qash” (“Run”) with internationally acclaimed director Aisultan Seitov. It is the most anticipated film of 2022 year in CIS countries and the USA.
Currently, Ablay signed the contract with Tengri Production founded by Sergei Bodrov, Oscar nominated director and screenwriter. At the same time, he also works on the feature movie “Canary” with Radiance Pictures.
DANIELE GANGEMI - DIRECTOR
Daniele Gangemi is an award-winning director, born in southern Italy.
Raised as an author, speaker and presenter in the radio and television environments of his city, Catania, when he was only a teenager, he still loves to write and tell, possibly in images, his stories.
In 2009 he won the 42nd Worldfest International Independent Film Festival in Houston for "Best First Feature" with his debut feature, "Cobalt Blue Night".
In 2021 he was selected by over 90 international festivals, receiving more than 40 awards (more than one for each continent) with the pilot episode, written and directed by him, of the noir / comedy series entitled "Fratelli Noir" ( "Noir Brothers"). He recently passed the 50 official and certified awards on the IMDb platform (the World Cinema Database on the Internet) received from all over the world for his valuable author works.
GIUSEPPE DE VUONO - SCREENWRITER & DIRECTOR
Inspired by his father, who told him stories about fantastic and
mythological worlds, Giuseppe’s love for writing spawned from a need
to continue to live those enchanted worlds and to let others know
them. In 2004 he graduated from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
in Milan in Foreign Languages and Literatures. He attended several
screenwriting and directing courses. In 2020 he wrote his first
screenplay: "Put A Price On Emotion", a drama/suspense genre which won
many awards in different Festivals all around the world, such as:
Florence Film Awards, Venice Film Awards, New York Neorealism Film
Awards and Oniros Film Awards. He wrote another feature screenplay: “A
Shot For Freedom” which won two gold awards at Hollywood Gold Awards
and Milan Gold Award. He has already finished writing his first short
script: “A Writer In The Darkness ” , totally inspired by the magic of
the films of the great director Alfred Hitchcock.
FRANCESCO GIARDIELLO - DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER
Francesco Giardiello is a director and screenwriter.
In 2019 he attended the CSC Lab “Becoming Movie Makers” - Intensive Directing Laboratory of the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema at the Rome branch of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
Also in 2019 he attended Framework: Master in Cinema Theories and Techniques, at the Evolution Cisf headquarters in Potenza.
He directed the short film Una Giornata Qualunque (2019, Direction and Screenplay), presented Out of Competition at Marateale 2019.
Between 2020 and 2021 he wrote various scripts for short films that reached the final in the most important Italian festivals.
In 2020 he founded the Zootropio Cinematographic Cultural Association, with the aim of producing cinematographic works.
In 2021 he directed the short film “Il Cigno” and curates the Backstage of the film “The Longest Night of the Year, directed by Simone Aleandri (cast: Ambra Angiolini, Massimo Popolizio, Alessandro Haber).
Since 2022 he has been a student at the Griffith Academy of Cinema and Television in Rome.
ANASTASIA VULGARIS- DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER
Her passion for cinema was born at the middle school and after this passion has grown and developed to become a profession and subject of study.
She graduated from the DAMS in Florence and she's currently attending the Master of Science in Performing Arts but she's alsoo a graduate in Directing and Screenwriting at the Accademia del Cinema di Bologna and as an assistant director at the School i mestieri del cinema.
From 2017 until 2020 she worked in several festivals in Florence such as the River to River film festival, the Balcanic film festival, the middle east film festival and the Cinema e Donne, covering different duties as a juror, assistant in the hall and host guests.
In 2019 she was assistant director for the short film about Margherita Datini directed by Massimo Smuraglia and joined the Film School Anna Magnani as director teacher.
From February 2021 to September 2021 she worked for several productions such as Netflix and Disney covering various tasks as assistant extras, covid manager assistant and production assistant.
She wrote and directed two shorts including Family dinner, winner of the special mention as best thriller for the Florence film awards in 2020.