by InTrieste
Photography: Erin McKinney
Since March 1st and until July 15th 2023, the Résidence of the Festival de Cannes has hosted 6 directors who, for four and a half months, receive personalized support in the writing of their screenplay for their first or second feature film. One of the lucky ones is the Triestine film director, Laura Samani.
In 2023, the Festival de Cannes wishes to reaffirm its mission to support the creations of younger generations and transmit our passionate interest in films. The Résidence is one of the foremost projects among the initiatives included under the new “Cinéma de Demain” banner.
Since its creation in 2000, the Résidence has assisted more than 250 filmmakers with their screenplays. Many of these directors have gone on to achieve international success, such as László Nemes with Son of Saul (Grand Prix at the 2015 Festival de Cannes, Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016), Lukas Dhont with Girl(Caméra d’or at the 2019 Festival de Cannes), and more recently Carla Simón with Alcarràs (Golden Bear at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival).
Laura Samani was born in 1989 in Trieste and holds a BA in Cinema and Communication Studies at the University of Pisa. She graduated in film directing at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma with the short film La Santa che dorme, premiered at Cannes Cinéfondation in 2016, then screened and awarded in several international Festivals. Her first feature film Piccolo Corpo premiered at La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 2021. The film has collected more than 40 awards all over the world; it was declared best debut film at the David di Donatello 2022 and won the Discovery Prix Fipresci 2022 at the European Film Awards. The Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) declared it Film of the year 2022.
