"Ambulancia" short film wins best editing in Italy
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 08:58:31 AM

Anna Isabelle Matutina won the Miglior Montaggio or Best Editing
Award for Richard Legaspi's short film "Ambulancia" at the 14th San
Gio International Video Festival held recently in the Courtyard of
the Old Court, Scaligeri Palaces of Verona, Italy.

The good news was relayed to Legaspi via email by San Gio festival
director Ugo Brusaporco. The festival
(http://www.sangiofestival.it), an international extension of video
and images in motion, was judged by Spanish actress Maria Jesus
Hoyos, critic Juan Ferrer, Italian actor Alain Libolt, actress
Donatella Mei, and writer Vanessa Picciarelli.

Alen Drlievic's "Esma" (Bosnia – Herzegovina), which tells the
lasting search of a woman named Esma for her missing husband, who was
abducted by the Bosnian Serb Army inside a United Nations peace camp,
won the grand prize Miglior Video or Best Video Award.

The other winners are Nebojša Slijepčević's "Za 4 Godine" / "In 4
Years" (Croatia) for Best Direction, Milos Tomic's "Plivnuti
Polibkem" / "Splitted by Kiss" (Czech Republic) for Best Screenplay,
Tibor Banoczki's "Milk Teeth" (United Kingdom) for Best Animation,
Ragnar Neljandi of Mari-Liis Bassovskaja's and Jelena
Girlin's "Kleit" / "The Dress" (Estonia) for Best Cinematography,
Ollie Davis of Sally Arthur's "A-Z" (United Kingdom) for Best Music,
Rikke Lyllof of Anna Goldblum Treiman's "Gaven" / "The Gift"
(Denmark) for Best Interpretation, and Jadwiga Kowalska's "Tăt ou
tard" (Switzerland) for the Soave Ways Award.

"Ambulancia," which tells of a painful twist in an ambulance driver's
belief that a dying patient can be saved by running over stray
animals on the street, was also selected as one of ten finalists in
the Open Category of Silvershorts, the short film competition section
of the 3rd .MOV International Digital Film Festival
(http://www.movfest.com), which will run from September 24 to October
7 in selected Robinsons Movieworld cinemas.

Aside from Ambulancia, also vying for the P100,000 grand prize in the
Silvershorts Open are Jan Philippe "JP" Carpio's "VTR," Antoinette
Jadaone's "Saling Pusa," Milo Tolentino's "Andong," Jose Maria
Basa's "Ampo," Ray Gibraltar's "Tiangge," J.I.E. Teodoro's "The
Prayer," CJ Andaluz's "Nekro," Ramon del Prado's "Libingan," and Leo
Valencia's "#cafe."

Matutina and Legaspi are both part of the Katorse Writers Group,
graduates of Ricky Lee's 14th scriptwriting workshop for film and
television (http://katorseshorts.wordpress.com). The latter, a
faculty of the University of the East College of Fine Arts, is a
fellow of the 2007 Asian Film Academy, an educational program of the
Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea, while the former is
also an independent filmmaker and a freelance editor for film and
television.

"Ambulancia" will next compete in the 10th International Panorama of
Independent Film and Video in Greece, 14th Bite the Mango Film
Festival in the United Kingdom, and 11th Pyongyang International Film
Festival in North Korea. It earlier won the grand prize in the Viva –
Pinoy Box Office (PBO) Digitales 2 short film competition and the
best short narrative film in the first Quisumbing-Escandor Film
Festival for Health. It also competed in the 32nd Open-Air Film
Festival Weiterstadt in Germany and 5th Naoussa International Film
Festival in Greece.