Caesar Design Film Award is the award that Ceramiche Caesar has been supporting for 5 years within the context of the Ennesimo Film Festival, an initiative organised by TILT, a non-profit youth cultural association. The Caesar Design Film Award project stems from the desire to investigate architecture and design from a cinematographic point of view, promoting the creation of a competition that awards short films related to design and architecture. Caesar’s vision embraces cinema and design, giving life to an initiative of great interest and with a strong echo in both the world of communication and design according to the idea that the ability to look beyond conventions is a fundamental and necessary element for creating innovative works.
The Theme of this year’s edition is precisely “Design for looking beyond”: looking beyond is an everyday activity that allows us in practice to overcome obstacles, optimise trajectories, anticipate a reaction. The concept of looking beyond addressed in design and architecture is an essential forma mentis for planning. Those who design have the task, in fact, of proposing solutions that respond to contemporary needs, but which can meet the challenges of passing time and changing needs. The designer innovates every day, proposing new forms and unthinkable explorations like a vision seeker.
On Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 8.30 p.m., the award ceremony was held at the Teatro Astoria, Piazza Menotti in Fiorano Modenese (MO). After the greetings of Francesco Tosi (mayor of Fiorano Modenese) and Adolfo Tancredi (managing director of Ceramiche Caesar) the guests in the auditorium carefully viewed the short films in the finals: six different masterpieces of great relevance that drew lengthy applause at the end of each viewing. The audience watched Play Txl – Berlin Tegel Airport, by Lukas Schmid. This was followed by Shadows travelling on the Sea of the day, by Lana Daher, immediately followed by The Ice Builders by Francesco Clerici and Tommaso Barbaro, immediately after Sala 5, Raffaello’s cartoon, by Stefano Santamato and finally The Deaf Academy by Jim Stephenson and Exise by Monika Koeck.
Winning the jury prize was the short film entitled ‘Ice Builders’ by Francesco Clerici and Tommaso Barbaro, an unfiltered story that showed us what is meant by ‘climate change’. A short film that is actually the extract of a much larger production. In fact, the videomakers and crew spent several months in the remote and desolate mountain valley of Zanskar, a twelve-hour off-road drive from the first town, located in the Himalayan ranges. Here, local communities have always relied on glaciers for their survival. During the spring, the melting of these water reserves provided the necessities for life and agriculture. However, due to climate change, the Ladakhi are facing an unprecedented challenge. To counter the growing water shortage and help recharge the aquifers, they are actively building artificial glaciers with the little they have available. The Ice Builders focuses on the act of resilience and determination in the face of adversity imposed by nature.
The Ice Builders really impressed those present, so much so that it also won the Wannabe Designers mention, a prize awarded by a jury of university students from faculties and schools of architecture, design, graphics and art. Francesco Clerici’s work (present at the final evening) also managed to win the prize given by the public, in a live vote. A jackpot of prizes that had never been recorded in previous editions.
An evening made even more precious by the presence in the hall of many architects, thanks to an initiative of the Order of Architects of Modena, which decided to include the evening among the official training events for the category.
At the end of the evening, Simona Finessi, director of Platform Architecture magazine and member of the jury, praised the finalists and emphasised the importance of this platform for dialogue between cinema and architecture promoted by Ceramiche Caesar; with Simona Finessi also Giampiero Rigosi, novelist and screenwriter, who praised the artists in the running, speaking of the extraordinary relationship between sectors created by the festival and the initiative promoted by Ceramiche Caesar.
On stage, Francesco Clerici shared his view on the need for deep reflection on the environmental crisis, emphasising the value of ancient solutions for modern challenges, with respect for nature and the planet. “This story tells us what the level of alarm is, it also tells us how some ancient methods are the solution to modern needs,” the director added: “These people face everything with little, no means and always with a lot of respect for nature and the planet.
Find out more at: www.caesar.it/caesar-design-film-award-2024
