Cristina Picchi

Award winning Italian filmmaker, writer and visual artist Cristina Picchi is based in London.
As a director she directed and edited the short documentaries Zima (2013), Eyes On The Ground (2012), Under Your Skin (2011) and The Disassociated (2011); her films have been screened in festivals and galleries worldwide, winning prizes in festivals such as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand and Thessaloniki. In 2013 she was nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards. She has a background as writer of award winning books and short stories.


FILMOGRAPHY

2013 Cinetrain: Russian Winter (RUS, 90 min.)
My short film Zima is one of the seven episodes of this feature film.
European premiere and Prix Du Public at Visions Du Réel 2014.

2013 Zima – Winter (RUS, 12 min.), part of the project Cinetrain – Russian Winter. Short art documentary about one of the harshest climates of the world and its inhabitants. A reflection on life, adaptation and the immutable cycles of existance. Premiered at Locarno Film Festival in August 2013 where it won the Pardino d'Argento and the nomination at the European Film Awards as Best Short Film 2013, along with several other prizes.

2012 Eyes On the Ground (UK, 3 min.) creative re-editing of the footage from the award winning TV documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields. Commissioned by ITN Productions for Channel 4 and published on Channel 4's website (most watched video of the week).

2011 Under Your Skin (UK, 8 min.) short experimental documentary inspired by the London 2012 Olympics. Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, BT and the Olympic Commission. First exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in August 2011.

2011 Fragments of a Dream (ITA/UK, 25 min.) documentary about former ballet dancer of the Theatre Alla Scala in Milan. (Graduation project)

2011 Il Disassociato - The Disassociated, (ITA, 33 min.) documentary about a former Jehovah Witness.

2010 Tobacco Dock (UK, 3 min.), short documentary about an abandoned mall in East London.


AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

November 2014: Special Mention of the Jury, 22nd Acipelago Film Festival, Italy
October 2014: Audience award for the "Made In Russia" selection of Shnit International Film Festival
September 2014: Selected artist for the 404 Wall commission (The NewBridge Project & ISEA2014 Dubai)
September 2014: Best International Short Film, Short Shorts, Mexico
August 2014: Jury Award, Concorto Film Festival, Italy
July 2014: Best score, San Giò Verona Video Festival, Italy
June 2014: Special Mention of the Jury for Cinematography, DokuMA, Croatia
May 2014: Emidio Greco Award for best emerging Italian director (with Zima) from the European Festival of Lecce and CNC - Italian National Centre of Short Film.
Prix Du Public at Visions Du Réel, Nyon for the feature film Cinetrain: Russian Winter
March 2014: WWF Award at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Nomination for Best Cinematography at Byron Bay Film Festival, Honourable Mention at Oslo Screen Festival.
February 2014: Special Mention of the Jury, Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival for Zima.
August 2013: Zima wins the Pardino d'Argento Swiss Life, Pardi di Domani International Competition
and Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Pianifica Prize, 66° Locarno Film Festival.
January 2013: Under Your Skin selected for the video art exhibition Time is Love 6.
October 2011: Selected worldwide as one of the directors of the project Cinetrain.
February 2011: Winner of the Road to 2012 pitching session held by the National Portrait Gallery with the experimental documentary project Under Your Skin.


RESIDENCIES / WORKSHOPS

2014 Selected artist for the EMARE Residency that will take place in Montreal, Canada at PRIM Centre – Productions Réalisations Indépendantes de Montréal in Winter/Spring 2015.
2014 ESP – European Script and Pitch participant with the short film script Unfolded.
2012 IDFAcademy training course, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2011 IDFAcademy training course, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2009 Visual Anthropology and documentary short course, SPAM Lucca, Italy.
2007 Creative writing course, Massa, Italy.


SELECTED SCREENINGS AND EXHIBITIONS

2014: Zima screened at Goteborg International Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Minimalen Short Film Festival, Tampere Film Festival, Oslo Screen Festival, Byron Bay Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival, Regard Sur Le Court Metrage, Quebeq, Saguenay, 36° Festival International de Films de Femmes, Créteil, France, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Internationale Kurtzfilmwoche Regensbourg, 38°Hong Kong International Film Festival, Kino Pavasaris - 19° Vilnius International Film Festival, Bifest - Bari, Go Short - Nijmegen, Tiburon Film Festival, Mediavawe Hungary, San Francisco IFF, Indie Lisboa, Festival Europeo di Lecce, Jeonju IFF Korea, VIS- Vienna Independent Shorts, Cinemambiente Torino, selected for Sheffield Doc Fest, Edinburgh Film Festival, Lago Film Fest, Italy, San Giò Verona Video Festival, Italy, 8th International Film Festival Kratkofil Plus 2014, Banjaluka, Capalbio Cinema International Short Film Festival, Italy, Kinemastik International Short Film Festival, Malta, Guanajuato International Film Festival (Mexico), Videoholica, Bulgaria , Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art, Ukraine, Concorto, Italy, 13th International Kansk Video Festival, Siberia, Short Shorts Film Festival, Mexico, Encounters Film Festival, UK, BFI London Film Festival, UK, DokumentArt, Germany and many others
Cinetrain: Russian Winter premier at Visions Du Réel.
Eyes On The Ground exhibited in “Another thought – think again” (30th October - 23rd November 2014) at the DIAS Digital Interactive Art Space, Denmark.
Killing Time screened as part of The 404-th Wall, a satellite project of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), taking place in Dubai, 30 October-8 November, 2014.
2013: Zima screened at Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland), Message to Man Film Festival (Saint Petersburg, Russia), .
Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal, Canada), Film Fest Gent (Belgium), Impakt Festival (Utrecht, NL), Sevilla Festival de Cine Europeo (Sevilla, Spain), L'Alternativa Barcelona Film Festival (Barcelona, Spain),
Under Your Skin screened at Contemporary Hotel Bloom ( Brussels, BE), Stiftelsen  3,14 International Contemporary Art Foundation (Bergen, Norway), KULTER Gallery (Amsterdam, NL), Peanut Underground Art Projects (New York), SAZMANAB (Teheran, Iran), Mori + Stein Gallery (London).
2012: Under Your Skin screened at London International Documentary Film Festival (London) and RICHMIX (London).
2011: Under Your Skin displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Projektinfo