Paolo Cottignola

A couple of jovial life-long drunkards run into a shy architecture undergrad, whose way of seeing things will be transformed as the trio wanders from pub to pub in search of a buried treasure.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Andreas Kartak, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris, is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to. Kartak is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances, and his alcoholism, forever intervene.

In the valleys of the Himalayas, an orphan boy saves a Bengal tiger cub from the ruthless poachers who killed the tiger's mother. Together they set out in the Himalayan mountains to the Taktsang monastery in Bhutan known as "The Tiger's Nest" where Buddhist monks took refuge after the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet and protect the big cats. A new great film for the whole family that talks about the importance of defending animals through the story of the friendship between two orphans, a tiger cub and a child, in a tale of brotherhood and the discovery of life.

An all-enveloping darkness. Suddenly, a child's voice, frightened, questioning, pierces the darkness... The first flickering rays of light begin to sculpt mysterious shapes out of the darkness... Among them, a very old man. He reassures the child, exhorting him to see the wonders of the earth. And it is with this child's eyes that we will witness the creation of the world.

Giovanni, a married man with a child, meets on a train Maria, a former lover.

The suicide of a prominent wine producer unleashes a series of mysterious murders.

The year is 1764. For over a year, Josef has been leading a precarious life in Venice. He hopes to become an opera composer. The city, full of talented and already-established composers, seems closed to him. Looking for work as a violinist, he comes into the orbit of a rich young woman. Thanks to her, he gets the opportunity to play at salons. But his real opportunity arises when he becomes the lover of a libertine marquise. She teaches him worldly manners, rids him of signs of a provincial upbringing and introduces him to a hedonistic existence free from religious intolerance. Thus transformed, Josef gets an incan incredible commission: to write an opera for the San Carlo, Europe's largest theatre.

A young man enters a brothel and sees a staged narration of a Chinese folk tale concerning a female pirate.

To avoid being sued, a film director reluctantly agrees to set up and direct the Good Friday celebrations in a small Tuscan town.

Lubo Moser is a jenisch, a gypsy. Mirana, who tried to oppose him, was killed. But how could this have happened? Why? Because Switzerland considers nomadism a social scourge, and, to eradicate it, it takes the children of the jenisch. Thus, without children, the Jenisch will be without a future. The mastermind is a state-run humanitarian institution, Pro Juventute, the arm the Street Children's Work: everything is perfectly legal and there is no opposition to the law. Lubo feels himself dying. And something about him really does die, on that night of wind and snow: it will be a new Lubo, tough and impenetrable, who will set up a project with unexpected implications to avenge his family and his people... and it will lead us to rethink the sense of justice, in the blurred boundaries between good and evil.

Marco Paolini discusses with poet Andrea Zanzotto about nature, history and language.

On an autumn night, in the deserted streets of a seaside town, Sara is fleeing from a party, convinced she has witnessed a murder. He finds refuge with Veronica, but does not know that the woman is the lawyer of an important industrialist, the alleged murderer.

The film tackles the life journey of Toni Ligabue, visionary naïf painter who used to draw tigers, lions and jaguars while living among the poplar trees of the boundless Po valley. A harsh life that is a fairy tale too, as a lonely and marginalized kid finds redemption in his art, and a way to express himself and be admired by the world.

Plagued by financial problems, ne'er-do-well Guido ends up in jail after faking an armed robbery at his workplace. A year later, just a few days before his release, he's forced by two dangerous inmates to take part in their jailbreak. On the run, Guido sets out to find his partner Antonella, who helped him with the robbery and still has the money.

At 19, David has his diploma (the first in his family), a job at a car wash, and little else. His family is broke and argues constantly. So, unannounced, David leaves Turin for his uncle's farm in Polesine. Here he learns many life lessons over the course of a summer while hanging out with Bosnian drug dealer Alem and Patrizia, an older woman who's an addict.

Two deadbeat friends see the opportunity of turning their fortune around after they come into possession of a precious stolen relic, the tongue of St. Anthony of Padua.

At six, Dario watched the first Moon landing on TV, sparking a lifelong dream to reach the stars. For the rest of his life, the ingenious curmudgeon built a homemade space rocket on his farm using scraps from the local hardware store. But, after a disastrous first launch burns down the neighbors' cornfields, Dario lands in jail. Enter Mario, his estranged brother who left the dying countryside for the big city: despite the confusion, he agrees to help Italy's 'secret space program' finally take off.

In autumn of 1526, the Emperor, Charles V, sends his German landsknechts led by Georg von Frundsberg to march towards Rome. The inferior papal armies, commanded by Giovanni de'Medici, try to chase them in the midst of a harsh winter. Nevertheless, the Imperial armies manage to cross the rivers along their march and get cannons thanks to the maneuvers of its Lords. In a skirmish, Giovanni de'Medici is wounded in the leg by a falconet shot. The attempts to cure him fail and he dies. The Imperial armies assault Rome. The film is beautifully but unassumingly set, and shows the hard conditions in which war is waged and its lack of glory. It ends straightforwardly with the declaration made after the death of Giovanni de'Medici by the commanders of the armies in Europe of not using again fire weapons because of their cruelty.

Italy, 1914. Two teachers take their pupils for a school outing from Bologna to Florence.