Zima

Cristina Picchi

Zima

2013, Colour, HD, 16/9, 11′ 27″

16 February – 22 February 2016

At the 66° Locarno Film Festival in 2013 Zima was awarded the Pardino d’Argento, as Best Short Film in the International Competition, and the Pianifica Prize, Locarno’s European Film Award Nominee as Best Short Film 2013. 

Synopsis

A portrait of a season – a journey through North Russia and Siberia, through the feelings and thoughts of the people who have to cope with one of the world’s harshest climates; a reality where the boundary between life and death is so thin that is sometimes almost non-existent, where civilization constantly both fights and embraces nature and its timeless rules and rites. In these remote places, people, animals and nature itself become elements of a millennial yet unpredictable script, in which physical and mental endurance play an important role as much as chance does, where life and death constantly embrace each other. A reflection on fate, adaptation and the immutable cycles of existence.

Zima was created within the Cinetrain project travelling from Moscow to Lake Baikal on the Trans-Siberian Railway in mid-winter 2013.

Bio

Cristina Picchi is an award winning Italian filmmaker, writer and visual artist based in London and Italy.  Cristina has directed and edited the short experimental documentaries Champ des Possibles (2015), Zima (2013), Eyes On The Ground (2012) and Under Your Skin (2011); her films have been screened in festivals and galleries worldwide, winning prizes in festivals such as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand and Thessaloniki. In 2013, she was nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards, her last work was selected to compete for the Best Short Film prize at the 72° Venice International Film Festival in 2015. She is the recipient of the EMAN/EMARE residency program in Montreal and the Quartier21 residency program at the Museums quartier in Vienna.  Cristina holds a degree and an MA in European Literature from the University of Pisa and and a master’s degree in Screen Documentary from Goldsmiths University.  She is currently has her first fiction short film in pre-production and is developing her first experimental documentary feature film.

www.cristinapicchi.com

Filmography 

2015 Champ des possibles (experimental documentary, CAN/ITA/SWE, 13 minutes)

2013 Cinetrain: Russian Winter (RUS, 90 min.) with the episode Zima

2013 Zima (experimental documentary, 11”30”’, RUS)

2012 Eyes On the Ground (experimental documentary, UK, 3 min.)

2012 It Never Happened (experimental documentary, UK, 4 min.)

2011 Under Your Skin (experimental documentary, UK, 8 min.)

2011 Il Disassociato – The Disassociated (documentary, ITA, 33 min.)

Awards for Zima

March 2015: Best International Short Film at Sguardi Altrove Film Festival, Italy

November 2014: Special Mention of the Jury, 22nd Acipelago Film Festival, Italy

October 2014: Audience award for the “Made In Russia” selection of Shnit International Film Festival

September 2014: Best International Short Film, Short Shorts, Mexico

August 2014: Jury Award, Concorto Film Festival, Italy

July 2014: Best score, San Giò Verona Video Festival, Italy

June 2014: Special Mention of the Jury for Cinematography, DokuMA, Croatia

May 2014: Emidio Greco Award for best emerging Italian director (with Zima) from the European Festival of Lecce and CNC – Italian National Centre of Short Film.

Prix Du Public at Visions Du Réel, Nyon for the feature film Cinetrain: Russian Winter

March 2014: WWF Award at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Nomination for Best Cinematography at Byron Bay Film Festival, Honourable Mention at Oslo Screen Festival.

February 2014: Special Mention of the Jury, Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival for Zima.

August 2013: Pardino d’Argento Swiss Life, Pardi di Domani International Competition and Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Pianifica Prize, 66° Locarno Film Festival.

Credits