Claudio Santamaria received the first award yesterday at the 2018 edition of Corti d’Argento Awards, organized by the National Union of Italian Film Journalists (Sngci) in Casa del Cinema in Rome. The finish line was reached with The Millionairs, considered to be the best debut of the year; a short film produced by Gabriele Mainetti. “Being a director for me is like being the captain of a ship under a storm with a drunken crew”, said Santamaria.

The Best Short Fiction Award went to Luca Vecchi for A Christmas Carol, a thriller set on a Christmas night, starring Giorgio Colangeli and Edoardo Pesce. The director has concluded that this project is the story of the loss of innocence.

Another very touching short film is Tabib, directed by Carlo D’Ursi, which tells the story of the last pediatrician in Aleppo. La recita by Guido Lombardi, Piccole Italiane by Letizia Lamartire and Pipinara by Ludovico Di Martino, are also among the five finalists.

In the section of short animation films, the winner has been Paolo Gaudio’s Looney Foodz!. Lino Guanciale and Valentina Carnelutti have won the best main actor and actress award for the short film Il Regalo Di Alice by Gabriele Marino. A special mention has also been made to the comedy Cani di Razza by Riccardo Antonaroli and Matteo Nicoletta. Pippo Mezzapesa’s La Giornata won the social commitment award with a short film that tells the story of Paola Clemente, who died “due to a new form of illegal employment”. The award for innovation and research in language, which was introduced this year, has been divided between L’ombra Della Sposa by Alexandra Pescetta and Malamenti by Francesco Di Leva. The Studio Universal award went instead to Cristallo directed by Manuela Tempesta.