Jury 2023

Valerio Vestoso is an Italian director and screenwriter, born in 1987. He began his career directing numerous video clips for the independent scene in Campania. In 2009 he wrote the theatrical comedy Erennio Decimo Lavativo directed by Ugo Gregoretti, which premiered at the Universo Teatro Festival. His first short film Il month di June dates back to 2012, with Nello Mascia, Rosario Giglio and Claudia Vismara. In 2014 he directed Tacco 12, a mockumentary on the obsession with group dancing which obtained more than 60 international awards, including victory at the Roma Creative Contest, chaired by Giuseppe Tornatore, and official selection at the Nastri D’Argento. In 2016 he wrote the theater show Buena Onda together with Walter Lupo, with Rocco Papaleo and Giovanni Esposito. In the same year he shot his third short film Ratzinger Wants to Return, which imagines Benedict XVI’s surreal return to the ecclesiastical scene. He wins the Solinas Bottega delle Serie Award with the Flash screenplay, dedicated to the world of ceremony photographers, told with the air of street superheroes. The pilot episode, presented at the Italian Film Festival in Madrid, with Massimiliano Gallo, Giovanni Esposito, Fabrizio Falco and Emanuela Fanelli, is broadcast on Raitre. He is the author of the lyrics for Enzo Savastano, the neo-melodic chansonnier played by Antonio De Luca, winner of the Forte dei Marmi 2019 Satira Award and the Critics Award at Musicultura 2019. In January 2018 his documentary Ère Gigione – L’incredibile comes out in cinemas Story of Luigi Ciaravola, which tells the world of Italian street parties through the life of Gigione, a contradictory singer, straddling the sacred and the profane. The following year he directed the video content within the program Stati Generali by Serena Dandini, with Neri Marcorè, Edoardo Ferrario and Lucia Ocone. In 2020 he is among the authors of the program Una Pezza di Lundini, with Valerio Lundini and Emanuela Fanelli. In the same period, he co-wrote the screenplay for the TV series L’Avvocato Malinconico, based on Diego De Silva’s novels, with Diego De Silva, Massimo Reale and Gualtiero Rosella. His latest short film “Le Buone Maniere” (2021) with Giovanni Esposito and Frank Matano, tells the virtuous redemption of a successful commentator struggling with the first signs of crisis. The short debuts in the official selection at Alice nella Città 2021 and participates in numerous European festivals. In 2022 Valerio directed the series “Vita da Carlo 2” with Carlo Verdone, for Paramount Plus. In the same year he directed the series “No activity” for Amazon Studio and Greenland.

He attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia from 1982 to 1984. In 1986 he began to approach cinema by gaining experience on set as a production inspector, assistant director and screenwriter in 1992 with the film Apple Pie. He attended the screenwriting course held by Leo Benvenuti at the Anac. After gaining work experience around the world, he returned to Italy and began a long career as a producer, author and television director. Among others, he collaborated as an author and producer of various TV programs in the period 1997-2012. Over the years he has made some short films and documentaries which have enjoyed considerable critical success and received various awards. In 2011, after twenty years of TV, he decided to dedicate his first love to cinema, writing the story and screenplay of the film LA MIA CLASSE, a film which was selected at the Venice Film Festival and whose protagonist was Valerio Mastandrea. The film met with good critical success and was awarded in several European countries. Screenwriter and director of various films, series and documentaries.