THE DARK SIDE OF MOVIES
This is where we start, the dark side of movies, inspired by the legendary Pink Floyd’s album. We start with the dark side, not visible to the naked eye, mysterious, obscure - a side with blurred boundaries and infinite nuances, where nothing is certain, precise, predetermined. Not visible rather than invisible, lying under the surface, or elsewhere, it’s something that can’t be simplified as it continuously alludes to deeper meanings. It’s the side of cinema that is never accommodating and always inquiring, making us question the meaning of what we see, listen, perceive.
If you look closely, you’ll see that there’s a dark side to everything. You find it in Brothers Grimm’s folk tales, in Fritz Lang’s fantastic and apocalyptic visions, in Stephen King’s archetypes of narrative fiction, in Stanley Kubrick’s unforgettable imagery, in Homer’s poems as in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings epic.
From the Holy Scriptures to Game of Thrones, the dark side is the driving force behind every art form and Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest is its cinematographic icon.
Franco Calandrini
Art Director Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest
The Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest was born in 2003 and for ten years it was a Horror film festival with great critical and public success, but in 2015 we felt that this dress was starting to become tight.
Cinema changed, we changed with it.
Nightmare is our brand, it is our trademark and we have decided not to change it in the years to come, but we have embraced genre cinema, all genre cinema and we have defined it as follows: "The Dark Side Of Movies" . “The Dark Side of Cinema” and this is what we have been since then and will be. becoming over time a point of reference for genre cinema, both in Italy and abroad, including noir, crime, thrillers, ghost stories, fantasy, sci-fi and much more.
A film festival that presents in its program international premieres, feature and short film competitions, visions and soundtracks of historical and restored films, master classes and the best of regional film production. Beyond a Nightmare Legacy platform inserted into the MyMovies One framework.
After the recognition with the Special Edition Golden Ring to the most illustrious figures of international and national cinema such as Liliana Cavani, David Lynch, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Marco Bellocchio, Pupi Avati, who have honored us with their image, in 2022 on the occasion of our twentieth anniversary, the METALWOLF is born (so called improperly by us, but without guilt) and the journey of METAMORPHOSIS begins.
The image of the wolf/man is created by the photographer Francesco Sambo to whom we are grateful for his splendid intuition that perfectly embodies the philosophy of the festival.
The Dark Side Of Movies is what defines our horizon and our borders, the transformation, immortalized in the Direwolf, fixes its image. And so, like the Gorilla of Sitges, the Lion for Venice, the Leopard for Locarno, the Bat for Rome, we would like the Direwolf to become the icon that will accompany us in the coming years.
As The Dark Side Of Movies defines our borders, the Direwolf defines our gaze.
PERMANENT STAFF – START CINEMA
President | Franco Calandrini
Coordination and Communication | Maria Martinelli
Administration | Maria Chiara Paperetti
Cinema Theaters Coordination | Lucia Biamonte
Audiovisual Coordination | Carlo Venturi and Niccolò Barbadoro
Web Developer | Andrea Arcangeli – Grifo.org
CEO & Digitalization | Maria Martinelli
CITY HONORARY COMMITTEE
Mayor | Alessandro Barattoni
Councillor for Culture | Fabio Sbaraglia
Head of Cultural Policies and Activities | MAR Director | Roberto Cantagalli
THANKS TO THE FESTIVAL AND NIGHTMARE LEGACY SUPPORTERS
Andrea Chimento; Andrea Recchia; Dave Tolchinsky; Gem Deger; Gerardo Lamattina; Marco Bolognesi; Pietro Pinto; Teatro Delle Albe: Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari; Donato Sansone
STAFF – XXIII EDITION RAVENNA NIGHTMARE FILM FEST
Artistic Director | Franco Calandrini
Assistant Artistic Direction | Mariangela Sansone
Artistic Consultants | Marco Del Bene, Alessia Gasparella
Festival Organizer| Andrea Valmori
Festival Organizer Assistant | Gian Marco Magnani
Organizational Secretariat | Alice Bocchio
Authors Manager | Andrea Valmori
Programmer | Alessia Gasparella
Short Film Programmer | Elena Venturiero
Communication & Social Media | Chiara Perini; Niccolò Barbadoro
Press Office | Alberto Mazzotti
Visual Identities & Web Developer | Maria Martinelli, Andrea Arcangeli – Grifo.org
Administration | Maria Chiara Paperetti
Technical Coordination | Lucia Biamonte, Davide Calzone
Audiovisual Coordination – Translations & Subtitles | Carlo Venturi, Kamera Film
Nightmare Legacy – MYmovies One | Niccolò Barbadoro
Image & Graphics | Maurizio Ercole
Catalog curated by | Alessia Gasparella, Niccolò Barbadoro
Volunteers & Interns Coordination | Niccolò Barbadoro
Audiovisual Content curated by | Carlo Venturi
Competition Selection Committee | Franco Calandrini, Mariangela Sansone, Alessia Gasparella with Elena Venturiero
Critics’ Award | Fabio Zanello, Manlio Gamarasca, Paolo Nazzi
Interns |
Nightmare Natives | Bruno Bendoni, Benedetta Castellucci, Federica Fanelli, Giulia Alonge, Lauro Zoffoli, Alessio Garani, Liam Lorenzo Waller
The “October Japanese” section is coordinated by Marco Del Bene
in collaboration with ASCIG – Association for Cultural Exchanges between Italy and Japan
The “Showcase Emilia-Romagna” section is coordinated by Maria Martinelli
in collaboration with Emilia-Romagna Film Commission
The Literary Encounters section is coordinated by Nevio Galeati
in collaboration with Associazione Pa.gi.ne and the literary festival GialloLuna NeroNotte
We would like to thank our consultants and fellow travelers:
Massimo Perissinotto, Sandro Prostor Koroval, Elena Baschieri, Francesco Gamberini, Maurizio Principato, Nicolò Calandrini
We have had the honor of hosting:
David Lynch, Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Brian Yuzna, Jeff Lieberman, Alex Infascelli, Lamberto Bava, Manetti Bros, Ruggero Deodato, Jean Rollin, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Liliana Cavani, Marco Bellocchio, Roberto De Feo
Conceived and organized by
Start Cinema
Thank you to all those who work and have worked with us, and whom we’ve had the pleasure to meet.
