Tommaso: 25 Years Old and Judge at the Venice Film Festival

10 DAYS, 38 FILMS WATCHED AND THE THRILL TO REPRESENT ITALY ON THE JURY OF THE VENICE DAYS SELECTION. THE EXPERIENCE OF TOMMASO SANTAMBROGIO, BOCCONI ALUMNUS WHO DREAMS OF BECOMING A SCREENWRITER

There is no aspect of his life which is not pervaded by cinema: his dissertations, the screenwriting courses, his movie reviews for the students’ magazine, to his dream of becoming a screenwriter. Tommaso Santambrogio, who graduated in the Master of Science in Economics and Management of Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment (ACME) at Bocconi, has recently completed one of his experiences in the world of cinema: being a judge at the 74th Venice Film Festival. "I won a contest launched by the European Parliament to represent Italy as a jury member of the Venice Days selection – a section of the Festival,” he explains. The jury consisted of 28 young cinema-enthusiasts, one participant per member state of the EU. Their task was to watch all the films presented in the section and attend, every two days, a round table to discuss the movies with other judges and with the Jury President, the Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf.

"During our first meeting she asked us to hold each other’s hands and to stay in silence and connect for a couple of minutes, I thought it was unusual but, in the end it was useful," says Tommaso, who did not just watch the film he was asked to. “I watched 38 films”, he admits, “I also ran under a downpour with the other judges because we didn’t want to lose a screening.” Another of Tommaso’s tasks was to watch the film selected for the Lux Prize, given to a competing film by the European Parliament, “reason why,” he explains, “I also participated in meetings with MEPs and today I am Italian ambassador of the Prize, which basically means introducing the films in question in some Italian cinemas." What he will always remember of this experience is the feeling of complete connection with the other judges: "We all spoke a different language, but we were like a single body," he says. "For example, after watching 120 Beats per Minute, by Robin Campillo - in the Lux Award competition- we left the room and we did not say a word for over an hour, because we all shared the same desire to process what we had just seen, and there was no need to explain that."

Tommaso's life turns around his passion for cinema. His first love was Manhattan, by Woody Allen, his latest loves are Michelangelo Antonioni's films, "in particular I’m fascinated by his Trilogy," and Michael Cimino's works: "I also wrote my undergraduate final dissertation on his film, Heaven's Gate, which caused the collapse of United Artists studio,” he explains. His graduate final dissertation was also on the topic of cinema: “It deals with the model of dynamic pricing applied to Italian cinemas,” he says. And this is not all. He has been attending screenplay and film critic courses, he volunteered as second projectionist for a small cinema, he used to write movie reviews in Tra I Leoni -one of the university’s media- and he has just finished shooting his first short film. And, last but not least, his big dream: “Where do I see myself in ten years? Hopefully working as a screenwriter or as a producer”.



by Benedetta Ciotto