Cavazzin's 'Mutrion' Wins Best Director at Locarno — SkimNews
SkimNews Take
Having a sole national entry win the directing prize in a 20-film shorts field underscores how heavily Italy's festival presence now rests on individual breakthroughs rather than a broad short-film pipeline.
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- "Mutrion" by 26-year-old Italian director Marco Cavazzin won the best director award in Locarno Film Festival's Pardi di domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) short film section
- The film was the sole Italian entry among 20 works from France, the U.K., Iran, Qatar, China, Taiwan, the U.S., and Ukraine; it stars Manfredi Marini — previously in Giovanni Tortorici's "Nineteen" — and Giulio Maroncelli, is produced by Etimo, supported by the Veneto Film Commission, and distributed by Cattive Produzioni
- Jury members Lebanese director Mounia Akl, South African producer Steven Markovitz, and Italian director Antonio Piazza selected the winner
- Cavazzin said the film "stems from the desire to tell a story of return," exploring how Venetian lagoon "rituals, superstitions and family stories… continue to shape collective identity"
- The synopsis follows Marco, nicknamed "Mutrion" ("sulky"), who left the lagoon at 20 — uniquely never losing the toenail of his right big toe like other locals — and whose four-years-later return triggers a psychological fracture
Why it matters: This makes 26-year-old Cavazzin one of the few Italian filmmakers to win in Locarno's emerging talent section, where Italy's sole short competed against 20 international entries from France, the U.K., Iran, Qatar, China, Taiwan, the U.S., and Ukraine. The Venice lagoon folklore-rooted narrative positions him within a generation of Italian directors mining local myth for psychological drama.
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