Stefano Savona was born in Palermo in 1969. He studied Archeology and Anthropology. In 1999 he switched his principal area of activity to directing and producing documentaries and video installations such as MIRRORED BORDER (2002, Special Jury Prize Torino FF) and D-DAY (2005, Centre Pompidou, Paris). His feature lenght documentary NOTES FROM A KURDISH REBEL (2006) received a nomination for a David di Donatello, and won the SCAM prize at Cinéma du Rèel in Paris. CAST LEAD (2009) was selected to the Locarno Film Festival - Cinéastes du présent and won the Special Jury Prize. Since 2009 he has been collecting the hundreds testimonies of “Il Pane di San Giuseppe” (“Saint Joseph’s Bread”), a visual history archive dedicated to the living memory of 100 years of rural civilization in Sicily. In 2011, he produced and directed PALAZZO DELLE AQUILE, winner of the Grand Prix of the Cinéma du Réel Festival. In 2011 he directed TAHRIR LIBERATION SQUARE, selected at Locarno Film Festival, distributed theatrically in France, winner of a David di Donatello and of a Silver Ribbon for Best Feature Lenght Documentary in 2012. His most recent film SAMOUNI ROAD was presented in the 50th Directors’ Fortnight and won the award for the best documentary screened across the various Cannes sections.His latest documentary The Walls of Bergamo, which chronicles the pandemic at its European epicentre in northern Italy (2023), premiered last February in the Encounters competition at the Berlinale.
Italy