Directors’ committee
Marcello Rossi
Luca Ruocco
Simone Starace
Selection committee
Laura Da Prato
Cultural operator and horror scholar, she has worked for over 20 years within film festivals (EuropaCinema, JDAHF, Fantasy Horror Award, LFF, SFIFF, Operazione Paura Film Festival). She collaborates with several cultural organizations for cinema, theatre, book and art events. For genre cinema she has written for Nocturno, Cinema.it, Splattercontainer, Muckrackers, Ecran fantastique, Bietti edizioni. She is currently a member of the artistic direction of the Lucca Film Festival, and she is responsible for the International Short Film Competition.
Paolo Gaudio
Director, screenwriter and animator. For years he has been involved in experimenting with animation techniques such as stop motion, cut out animation and computer graphics. Fantasticherie di un passeggiatore solitario marks his feature film debut with 14 international awards. In 2018 he received the Nastro d’Argento LOONEY FOODZ! as best animated short film. In 2022 he produces and distributes the short THE BLACK reCAT, finding space in the line-ups of the major fantasy film festivals of the world, and winning 12 international awards. The film was also nominated for the Silver Méliès as best European fantasy short.
He actively collaborates with the Rainbow Academy to train new professionals in the sector.
Since 2014 he has been part of the editorial staff of InGenereCinema.com and he is the director of Il giro dell’horror, a docu-series dedicated to the Italian horror movie-makers, produced by InGenereCinema.com and distributed on homevideo by Weird Entertainment.
In 2024 he was the director and screenwriter of the short film DAGON: a stop motion animation adaptation of the story of the same name by the cult writer H.P. Lovecraft, produced by Emma Film.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paologaudio/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user2910881
Roberto Giacomelli
Roberto Giacomelli (1983) is a film critic and scholar of fantastic imagery, he wrote numerous essays on genre cinema and he has collaborated with various publishers. Founder of the site DarksideCinema.it, he works as a programmer and selector of films and series for the Rai4 television channel.
Ludovico Lamarra
He is the bassist of the music group Il Muro del Canto, an independent cult group based in Rome with hundreds of concerts in Italy and abroad, and some trespassing into the audiovisual sector, as evidenced by “7 Vizi Capitale”, a song written with Piotta which became the main soundtrack of the first season of the Netflix series Suburra. But deep down he hides a second identity, as predicted by the best tradition of genre literature: the identity of an unrepentant nerd. In fact, he is one of the founders and current director of the Nerdface portal, a webzine which for over ten years has been accompanying thousands of readers to untangle themselves in the massive range of products of a culture that has now become pop, through news, reviews and insights, curated by an editorial team with offices in the capital and in Milan.
Luca Pernisco
Actor and voice actor. From 2001 to 2006 he studied acting at the Centro Teatro Attivo in Milan, also participating in various seminars, in particular on the Tadashi Suzuki Method and on the history of Greek theatre.
Between 2005 and 2006 he attended a dubbing course held by Aldo Stella and subsequently he continued his acting studies at Corrado d’Elia’s Scuola Teatri Possibili.
In autumn 2005 he was among the founders of the cultural and theatrical association “I ratti dal serraglio”, making his stage debut in October 2006 with Amadeus (freely based on the text by Peter Shaffer), which he directed.
Subsequently, again for the association, he participated as an actor in plays such as Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s The Physicists, Né bestie né folli, ma uomini (an original representation inspired by the life of the writer Zvi Kolitz, which he directed and wrote) and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
From 2010 to 2013, outside of “I ratti dal serraglio”, he took part in the dark show Tutto bene, mamma?, written by Gloria Mina and directed by Sergio Masieri.
In parallel with the theatre, he began his work as a dubber in Milan, participating in works directed by, among others, Loredana Nicosia, Luca Sandri and Aldo Stella.
Since 2013 he has continued his activity as a voice actor in Rome, working on numerous films and television series under the direction, among others, of Massimiliano Alto, Sandro Acerbo, Eleonora De Angelis, Marco Mete, Metello Mori, Alessandro Rossi and Alessandro Quarta.
Since 2015 he has been among the editors of InGenere Cinema, a website founded by Luca Ruocco.
IL MONDO DEI DOPPIATORI – La pagina di LUCA PERNISCO (antoniogenna.net)
Gilda Signoretti
She obtained a specialist degree in Performing Arts and Techniques from University “Sapienza” of Rome , followed by a specialization in Archival and Librarian Heritage from SSAB – Specialization School for Archivists and Librarians, at the same University.
Sfe has conducted biblio-archival studies on theatrical censorship in the fascist and post-fascist era.
In 2008 she collaborated in biblio-archival research with the Department of Performing Arts and Sciences of the University “Sapienza” of Rome for the creation of the first database in Italy of theatrical productions in the fascist era (1931-1944).
Since 2010 she has been editor of the portal InGenereCinema.com.
Since 2012 she has worked as a documentarian and project manager in the field of television documentation.
Orsola Trevisan
She was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s with “Notte Horror” and Dylan Dog. Teacher by day and passionate about fantasy cinema by night, she loves getting lost among creatures of the dark and intriguing plot twists, wandering among genre film festivals such as Sitges, Ravenna Nightmare and Fantafestival. Already collaborator of the Fantafestival in the 2013-2017 editions.
Social media manager
Irene Scialanca
Screenwriter, playwright, story editor, Irene Scialanca (born 1992) graduated in Modern Literature at La Sapienza University of Rome; in 2016 she graduated from ANAD Silvio d’Amico in the first level Master in dramaturgy and screenplay and at the same time she attended a course in screenwriting and storytelling techniques in collaboration with the Holden School. She then concluded her studies by training as a Young Storyteller at ANAD Silvio d’Amico with an intensive course of workshops in English. She began her career in 2017 working for the production company Stand by me – Tv Production. She currently works in the film and television industry, dealing with both the creation and writing process and working on set as an assistant director. She has also held the role of story editor for some publishing houses and she is an editor for the online magazines Ingenerecinema.com and Nerdface.it. Since January 2023 she has been the creator of the format and content creator of the TikTok profile @Comesifaunfilm?, an information channel on the professionalism of cinema and the production path of a movie, from the birth of the idea to the theatrical release.