Paolo Sorrentino and Piccolo America — which runs both Rome’s largest open-air film festival and Europe’s first 24-hour movie theater — want to see your short films.
Together, Sorrentino’s newly formed company Numero 10 and Piccolo America have launched their premier short film festival, Corto Condorello. Aimed at young filmmakers under 35 around the world, the festival boasts a jury including Willem Dafoe, Debra Winger, Carla Bruni, Jan Komasa, and Radu Mihaileanu, with “Parthenope” director Sorrentino serving as chair.
Ahead of the festival running November 22 through 24 in Rome, submit your films to Corto Condorello via Film Freeway here through Sunday, October 20. The jury will select a winning short from 10 finalists, and the jury’s top prize, the “Golden Condorello,” will be accompanied by MUBI‘s acquisition of the winning short — with streaming on MUBI’s online platform to follow. MUBI has had a banner year with the successful wide release of the Cannes-winning horror film “The Substance” while regularly operating its streaming channel dedicated to international, arthouse, independent, and, of course, short-film fare.
An out-of-competition section, called the Condorello d’Argento, will award a 500-euro voucher in the historic San Calisto bar in Rome’s neighborhood of Trastevere. That’s where Sorrentino shot a key scene for his Best International Feature Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty.”
Registration, submission, and admission are all free. So far, Corto Condorello has received more than 1,300 submissions. The awards ceremony will be held November 24, with the festival taking place at Cinema Troisi. For the past two years, Piccolo America has operated the Italian single-screen theater, 24 hours a day, which sees tens of thousands of filmgoers each year since 2022. Piccolo America also operates the open-air Il Cinema in Piazza festival in the summer.
In a statement shared with IndieWire, Piccolo America said, “It is now 12 years since the experience of Piccolo America in Rome was born, and for a long time, we wanted to organize a festival that could give space to young authors and short films, putting into system the experience and relationships built over the years. We tried to build an international and heterogeneous jury to give more opportunities for visibility to the participants and we are very happy that the company Numero 10 decided to produce the project together with us. MUBI’s collaboration is a great recognition for us, for which we thank Efe Cakarel and the Italian and international staff, who enthusiastically accepted our proposal offering authors the opportunity to be included on a unique platform in the film scene, which carefully selects titles from its catalog addressing a competent and passionate audience.”
Submit your film to Corto Condorello by Sunday, October 20 here.
