17.03.2025
Interview: Elif Yılmaz
A short film route from Italy to Turkey with Giulia Iannello
Film festivals serve as cultural bridges, creating spaces where distant geographies connect through a shared love for cinema. At the 21st Akbank Short Film Festival, one such intersection will take place in the Special Screening section, which will feature a curated selection from Italy’s Magma International Short Film Festival. Adding to this cultural exchange, Giulia Iannello, the festival’s Curator and Project Manager, will host a special talk as part of the festival’s program.
In our conversation with Giulia Iannello, we explore the journey of Magma International Short Film Festival, the details of its collaboration with Akbank Short Film Festival, and much more.
Could you briefly describe the journey of the Magma International Short Film Festival in which you have made significant contributions? What values does the festival offer to the industry and cinema culture?
In 2002, when the members of our cultural association started to imagine an event in which Sicilian audiences could have the possibility to enjoy high-value works that are often precluded from the main distribution channels, film festivals were not so widespread! We literally went to a postal office to collect VHS and DVDs, we met to watch together the submitted works, our first venue was a parish hall with only 80 seats and there was a very small budget. Since then, everything has changed: we have acquired skills in communication and in the audiovisual field, thus bringing new life and new ideas to the development of this project.
From a few hundred spectators, Magma has passed to a paying audience of more than 1000; the 130 works entered in 2002 have increased progressively from year to year, reaching a peak of 1000 short films received by the selection committee in 2020.
Over the years, the days of the festival have also grown, and consequently the space dedicated to the short format: we started with a single evening in 2002 and now we have a weekly program with a double location, both summer and winter. Alongside the International Competition, parallel competitive sections have been created, such as Insula (devoted to Sicilian short films), Eksperimenta (dedicated to video art) and Debut (dedicated to International premieres). During the last editions, the program of side events has also been enriched with the organization of exhibitions, masterclasses, training programs and much more.
We always maintain our focus on the short film, that for us is separate art form, a format able to experiment new styles and to create new trends; and now that we have streaming and online platforms, I think that the role of a film festival is to claim the centrality of cinema halls, the importance to meet a director or an actor in presence, the need to involve young students in the construction of their identity as audience. As usual, alongside the films, we offer valuable networking opportunities among professionals and social gatherings with the active involvement of the local community in venues outside the cinema: Magma can and should be an extraordinary opportunity for cultural enrichment for everyone, all-around.
To what extent could the establishment of specific quotas for women directors in festival selections offer a solution to gender-based disadvantages in the industry? How could it be ensured that women filmmakers have equal opportunities?
I believe that the role of a festival director is to discover new talents, give voice to directors who don’t have it, build bridges with lesser-known cinematographers, cultivate the sensitivity of the audience, and make cinema be celebrated in all its forms. I am not so sure that the inclusion of female quotas in the direction of festivals can guarantee a greater presence of female directors, this is because it would be a quantitative and not qualitative parameter. Personally, I can tell you how we work: the selection committee is made up of 50% women and 50% men. What we have in common is the same sensitivity and a deep knowledge of the tastes of our audience. When we see a film, we already know if it will please, after years of working together and in the same project we are perfectly aligned. At a first screening, we don’t look whether it is male or female, just as we do not look if it is a great production, whether the film has won awards or not, if it has already participated in other festivals in our area: for us, only quality goes on. These are elements that come into play in the final selection, and you know what happens more often? That women win, and not because they are women but because they are good!
A selection curated by the Magma International Short Film Festival will be shown at the 21st Akbank Short Film Festival. Why is it important for you to have a presence in other short film festivals?
I think that offering the audience the chance to lay their eyes on a cinematic horizon as wide and diverse as possible has always been one of the main goals set by our festival. That’s the reason why we always search for International film festival partnerships: because we all need new visions, new perspectives, a direct exchange and sharing of experiences and works.
With this kind of partnership, we are also able to give distribution and visibility to films that have participated in past editions to be enjoyed by a different audience: for this reason, when we go abroad to visit a festival, we always bring with us a selection of short films that we believe deserve to be seen beyond its national boundaries.
In particular, this selection includes films by Sicilian directors or filmed in Sicily, plus an Italian film winner of the Audience Award at Magma 2024. We hope you like this selection and that it makes you want to visit Sicily, in particular the beauties of Acireale, a baroque city on the slopes of the Etna volcano.