Jury 2020

This year, RIFF pays tribute to its spectators introducing the Audience Award. The audience, the recipient par excellence and essential pillar of the cinema, will judge the films in competition. Spectators will be called directly to express their opinion on a special sheet of paper delivered at the beginning of the film. The vote will affect the sections of documentaries, italians and foreigners, which always have been the flagship of the Festival. The initiative aims to make the experience in the room more interactive and engaging, allowing the authors to receive direct and immediate feedback.
Anselma Dell’Olio wrote and directed two docufilms: “La lucida follia di Marco Ferreri” (2017), Silver ribbon and David di Donatello for best documentary; and “Fellini degli spiriti” (2020), Official Selection Festival de Cannes. Since 2003, she has been a critic for “Cinematografo”, a weekly show of Rai Uno which is the only TV broadcast that discusses new film releases in Italy. Her work in cinema started while she was still in high school, and since then, she kept working in the field, covering different roles, from assistant to assistant to the dialogues, dialogue coach and even actress in “Ciao Maschio” by Ferreri. [read more]She has a long history of collaboration with renowned directors such as Francesco Rosi, Mario Monicelli, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Marco Ferreri, Elio Petri, William Friedkin and Steven Spielberg. She also worked with Dino De Laurentiis in Los Angeles, and with producers Franco Cristaldi, Alberto Grimaldi and many others. Furthermore, she was a translator and dialogue adapter for dubbing and her teacher was Mario Maldesi, one of the most popular dubbing directors in Italy. Since 1996, she writes for the Italian newspaper “Il Foglio”, contributing with a column of movie news during the Venice and Rome Film Festival. She was also a film critic for Moby Dick, the cultural magazine of the Liberal newspaper (2008-2013), and collaborated with the Fairchild Publications group (USA). Moreover, she has also written in English about cinema for “Azure”, a quarterly journal published by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. [/read]

Anselma Dell’olio

Ahmad Ejaz

Ahmad was born in Gujranwala (Pakistan) in 1962, where he worked for a long time as a journalist and achieved a degree in Mass Communication. In Italy, he is a cultural mediator and writer. With his work, he is constantly involved in the spreading of Pakistani culture throughout Italy. Because of its daily commitments to immigrants’ rights, he has been an active part of the dialogue with Islamic institutions in Italy, a strong supporter of moderate Islam and one of the members of the Islamic Council at the Ministry of the Interior. He has always worked on the ambitious project of a multi-ethnic and multicultural society. Whilst showing due respect for cultural diversity, he devoted himself to the advancement of interreligious dialogue. [read more]Ahmad Ejaz is the editor-in-chief of Azad, the Pakistani-language newspaper of the publishing group Stranieri In Italia: «Pakistanis in Italy – said Ejaz Ahmad – needed a newspaper written in Urdu. Most of them do not speak Italian: there’s a risk of being cut off from current events, even if these often concern them directly. A newspaper can help them understand not only the culture of this country but also rediscover their own». As a matter of fact, Azad means freedom, an important name for those who know what a dictatorship represents. For several years, he was the president of the non-profit association “Nuove Diversità” which tries to play an important role for Muslims and Pakistanis in Italy, working for mutual integration, in compliance with the Italian Constitution. For five years, he also worked as a National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office (UNAR) supervisor, hence he knows what racism and prejudice can mean. Moreover, for more than 12 years, he has been Forum’s intercultural mediator for Caritas Interculture where he works in several schools to introduce modern Islam and Pakistan. Since 2002, he has been working as an intercultural mediator with the “Differenza Donna” association.[/read]
Lapo Gresleri is a film critic and historian, cultural operator and lecturer. He works as an external collaborator for the Cineteca di Bologna since 2009, and he is the author of a number of essays, articles and reviews, all published in full volumes and magazines including Inquiry, Archphoto 2.0, Cinergie, Parole Rubate, Studi Pasoliniani, and Le Magazine Littéraire. For years, he has been mainly involved in African American cinema. In 2019, he held the first course in Italy on the subject at the Primo Levi University of Bologna. He has also published the Spike Lee monograph, “Orgoglio e pregiudizio nella società Americana” (Bietti, 2018) and the essay “Body and Souls”. “Il corpo nero nel cinema afrosurrealista” (Bietti, in course of publication).

Lapo Gresleri

Lino Guanciale

Lino Guanciale was born in 1979 in Avezzano (Italy) and graduated in 2003 from the Silvio D’Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he won the Gassman Prize as Best Actor of the previous ten years. Immediately upon graduation, he began working in the theatre, with Gigi Proietti in “Romeo e Giulietta”, at the inaugural show of Rome’s Globe Theatre. More work quickly followed, with Claudio Longhi (“Il Matrimonio di Figaro”, “La solitudine dei campi di cotone”, “Sallinger”, “Prendi un piccolo fatto vero”), and Franco Branciaroli. He made his film debut in 2008, playing none other than Mozart in “Io, Don Giovanni” by Carlos Saura, followed by Renato De Maria’s “La Prima Linea”. In 2011, he was also featured in Andrea Molaioli’s “Il gioiellino”, Marina Spada’s “Il mio domani”, Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love”, and Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “La scoperta dell’alba”. [read more] He returned to TV with 3 seasons of “Una grande famiglia”, the series directed by Riccardo Milani and was also involved with some successful RAI series such as “Che Dio ci aiuti” season 2 and 3, “La dama velata”, two seasons of “Non dirlo al mio capo” and “La porta rossa”, and three of “L’Allieva”. On stage, he co-starred in Bertolt Brecht’s “La resistibile ascesa di Arturo Ui”, directed by Claudio Longhi and winner of Best Show of 2011 by the Italian National Theatre Critics Association. In 2016, he launched the season of Rome’s Teatro Argentina with “Ragazzi di vita” by Pier Paolo Pasolini, staged by Massimo Popolizio. In the 2017/2018 season, he was the protagonist of the theatrical adaptation of “La classe operaia va in paradiso”, directed by Claudio Longhi, for which he won the UBU Award and the National Theater Critics Association Award as best actor.[/read]
Fabrizio Lucci (Rome, 1961) is an Italian cinematographer. He has worked on numerous television and film projects. On television he made his debut in 1996 with the Italian television series “Dio vede e provvede”. Among his most famous works are “Don Matteo”, “Coco Chanel” and “Immaturi”. Long-time collaborator of Paolo Genovese, he has also worked on his most recent successes like “Perfetti Sconosciuti” and “The Place”. More recently, he has been involved in the cinematography of “Superheroes”, the new film by Paolo Genovese with Alessandro Borghi and Jasmine Trinca, part of the Berlinale 2020 line-up.

Fabrizio Lucci

Patricia Mayorga Marcos

Patricia Mayorga Marcos is a Chilean journalist and writer. Resident in Italy since 1975, she is the author of books published in both Italy and Latin America, including “Il Condor Nero – L’Internazionale Fascista e i rapporti segreti con il regime di Pinochet” (Sperling & Kupfer editori, Rome, 2003), published in Italian and Spanish; “Michelle Bachelet, la Donna del Riscatto” (Edizioni Lavoro, Rome, 2007) and volumes of artistic and cultural distribution, including “Cronache Italiane”, a collection of articles on tourism and culture, published in the Chilean newspaper “El Mercurio”, the most important of the country, of which she is a contributor. For more than 20 years, she has been a member of the Cinema Committee of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, which annually organizes the “Globo d’Oro” award, an honor given by foreign correspondents to Italian cinema. Since 2018, she has been President of the Worldwide Association of Women Journalists and Writers.
Stefano Ratchev was born in Rome in 1984, son of the opera singer Delia Surratt and flutist Nikolay Ratchev. At a young age, starts playing piano and cello. Has been member of the Sistin Chapel Choir directed by Domenico Bartolucci and then studied at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome with M. Maurizio Cambini and M. Dante Cianferra. Has been first cello of the Youth Orchestra of the Arts Academy in Rome and has worked with various national orchestras. He began composing at 19 years old for commercials and theater and started a duo, Ratchev & Carratello with whom co-writed several feature and TV film scores. Has worked with the following directors: Gianni di Gregorio, Giuseppe Piccioni, Kim Rossi Stuart, Francesca Comenicini, Roan Johnson, Claudio Noce, Eugenio Cappuccio, Wilma Labate, Antonio Manzini, Antonio Gagliardi, Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Elisa Amoruso, Leonardo D’Agostini and many others.

Stefano Ratchev