Giovanni Berardi
Directing
Biography
Giovanni Berardi was born in L'Aquila in 1994. He has been passionate about cinema since childhood and began his journey in the film industry by writing articles for blogs and online magazines. In 2017, as a self-taught filmmaker, he made his directorial debut with the short film “About You.” In 2018 he founded the cultural association “filmAQuì,” which aims to promote and showcase the beauty of the Aquilano region through cinema. The following year, in 2019, he directed his second horror short film, “Il Profumo dell’Abisso”, distributed by “Prem1ere Film. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote, directed, and filmed “Isolesque,” a surreal and existential horror film that explores the socio-psychological issues stemming from the lockdown. In 2021, he began specialised studies in cinematography at the “IFA – Scuola di Cinema” in Pescara. In 2022, he worked with his course colleagues Simone Paggetti and Alessandro Marcheggiani to develop “Sacro | Urbano,” which he co-directed with Simone Paggetti in 2023. He completed the “Cinema” course and graduated from the IFA Scuola di Cinema Academy in the same year. In 2024, he earned a Master’s degree in “Film Directing” from the IFA Scuola di Cinema, during which he developed, wrote, and directed the short film “D(e)AD.”
Known For
A child finds himself on a journey between the urban and the sacred worlds to be reunited with his mother one last time. The priest leads him through the hurdles of the two dimensions to the point of reliving his last moments
Sacro Urbano
The short describes, in an allegoric and symbolic way, the quarantine's routine of a girl. The regular situation, of calm and normality, is focused on the presence of another element that she can relate with. The imminent change is caused by the perception of the other as a negative element which brings to the broken of the balance and the creation of automatism, which substitutes the regular actions because there is the loss of the presentification due to the mirror of the other as a "Significant Ego".
Isolesque
At the age of 11, Tommaso lost his mother and was accused of her death. Years later, he returns to his hometown, where he faces his fears and nightmares on a journey that blurs the lines between reality and dreams.
The Frog
The peaceful life of a countryman, soon to become a father, is continuously disrupted by bizarre events and unsettling apparitions. What is happening around him? How much of what he is experiencing is real, and how much is a product of his imagination?