Find an overview of the complete program here!
Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, partners in life and work, are among the most prolific documentary filmmakers in contemporary cinema. From Italy, their creative oeuvre has long since gone beyond their country’s own borders.
In 2007 their debut work, I PROMESSI SPOSI (The Betrothed), they took an ironic look at the bureaucratic hurdles that couples in Italy are confronted with before marrying. In 2009, in GRANDI SPERANZE (Great Expectations), they presented an astute portrait of young entrepreneurship in their home country. In 2011, their next work, the poetic and contemplative IL CASTELLO (The Castle), received numerous awards. This was followed in 2013 by MATERIA OSCURA (Dark Matter), by L’INFINITA FABBRICA DEL DUOMO (The Never-ending Factory of the Duomo) in 2015, and by SPIRA MIRABILIS (Miraculous Spirals) in 2016 – all of which had their world premieres at the most important film festivals in Europe. From 2018 to 2022 they made BLU, GUERRA E PACE (War and Peace) in UNA GIORNATA NELL’ARCHIVIO PIERO BOTTONI (A Day in the Archives of Piero Bottoni), shot a film about the groundbreaking projects of one of Italy’s most important architects. Their most recent work, BESTIARI, ERBARI, LAPIDARI (Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, 2024), reflects on significant contemporary subjects and, in three acts, is devoted to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.
In their distinctive signature style, D’Anolfi and Parenti interweave image, sound, archive material, and political reflection in filmic language, that understands the medium as a mirror of human states of being, desires, and actions. The duo’s works will be screened in Vienna for the first time.
