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Laura Samani
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Laura Samani (born 9 October 1989) is an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Key Information
Life and career
[edit]Born in Trieste, Samani graduated from the University of Pisa in Performing Arts and Communication Disciplines.[1] She later enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, and her graduation short film The Sleeping Saint premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the Cinéfondation sidebar.[1] It won the Best Short Film Award at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival.[2]
In 2021, Samani made his directorial feature debut with Small Body, which premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, in the Critics' Week section.[1] The film got her the David di Donatello for Best Directorial Debut and the European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year.[3][4] Her following film, A Year of School, is loosely based on the 1929 novella of the same name by Giani Stuparich.[5] It premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, in the Orizzonti sidebar.[6]
Filmography
[edit]- The Sleeping Saint (short, 2016)
- Small Body (2021)
- A Year of School (2025)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Salvinelli, Laura (14 April 2023). "Laura Samani, cinema come cura infinita". il manifesto (in Italian). Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ^ Pinto, Vitor (15 November 2016). "The Last Family triumphs at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival". Cineuropa. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
- ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (4 May 2022). "Paolo Sorrentino's 'The Hand Of God' Named Best Film At Italy's David Di Donatello Awards". Deadline. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ^ Mouriquand, David (8 November 2022). "Here are the winners of the 2022 European Film Awards". Euronews. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ^ Vivarelli, Nick (22 May 2025). "RAI Cinema Chief Paolo Del Brocco on Selling 'Heads or Tails' in Cannes and a New Victor Kossakovsky Doc Made With Italian Botanist Stefano Mancuso". Variety. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ^ De Marco, Camillo (31 August 2025). "Review: A Year of School". Cineuropa. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
External links
[edit]- Laura Samani at IMDb
Laura Samani
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Early life and education
Birth and background
Laura Samani was born on 9 October 1989 in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.[3] Trieste, her birthplace, is an Italian border town where Mediterranean, Slavic, and Germanic cultures intertwine.[5] This multicultural setting in northeastern Italy, shaped by its historical position at the crossroads of different European influences, forms the regional context of her early life.[5]Education
Laura Samani initially attended the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the University of Pisa.[4] She completed her BA in Cinema and Communication Studies there in May 2012, with a graduation thesis focused on the television series Twin Peaks.[4] She subsequently enrolled in the directing program at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, Italy's national film school, completing the three-year triennium from 2013 to 2015.[4]Career
Short films
Laura Samani began her filmmaking career in 2013 with short works that demonstrated her interest in intimate, locally rooted storytelling. [6] She directed and wrote the short documentary Rosso liquido in 2013. [6] That same year, she served as director of the segment "Gaetano" in the documentary Io sono qui. [6] Her graduation film from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, The Sleeping Saint (La santa che dorme, 2016), which she directed and co-wrote, premiered in the Cinéfondation section of the Cannes Film Festival. [1] The film gained international recognition and won Best Short Film at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival. [7] In her early short films, Samani frequently employed non-professional actors and local dialects to achieve authenticity and capture the nuances of regional life. [8] In 2019, she served as supervising director on Città visibile, a participatory documentary project developed through workshops with teenagers in Trieste's Valmaura neighborhood. [6] Samani continued her work in the short form with L'estate è finita – Appunti su Furio (2023), which she directed and wrote. [9] These early shorts laid the groundwork for her transition to feature filmmaking with Small Body in 2021. [1]Feature films
Laura Samani made her feature directorial debut with Piccolo corpo (Small Body, 2021), which she also wrote. The film premiered in the Critics' Week section at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in 2021, marking the start of an extensive festival run. The production featured chronological shooting in locations across Friuli, a non-professional cast, and the use of local dialect. The narrative explores themes of grief, rebellion, and spirituality. Her second feature, Un anno di scuola (A Year of School, 2025), was directed and co-written with Elisa Dondi. It premiered in the Orizzonti section at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in 2025 and received the Best Actor award for Giacomo Covi. The film is an Italian-French co-production by Nefertiti Film with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with Tomsa Films and Arte France Cinéma. It is loosely based on the 1929 novella of the same name by Giani Stuparich but relocates the story to Trieste in 2007, around the time of the Schengen border changes with Slovenia. The plot follows Fred, a 19-year-old Swedish girl who enrolls as the only female in the final year of an all-boys technical high school class, where her open Nordic approach to friendships sparks jealousy, rivalry, and group tensions among her male classmates in a light-hearted coming-of-age comedy. The cast features newcomer Stella Wendick as Fred, alongside fellow newcomers Giacomo Covi, Pietro Giustolisi, and Samuel Volturno in key supporting roles. [10] [11] Laura Samani's filmmaking is characterized by an introspective approach that explores themes of desire, gender dynamics, and personal identity, often rooted in her hometown of Trieste and informed by personal experiences. Her debut feature Small Body (Piccolo corpo, 2021) incorporates magical realism and feminist perspectives within a period setting. Her follow-up A Year of School (Un anno di scuola, 2025) adopts a contemporary coming-of-age framework, centering on sexual tension, gendered expressions of desire, and power dynamics in a male-dominated environment. Samani has described the film as being "about desire" and how "it's easier being a male" in expressing and acting on it, emphasizing differences tied to embodied experience rather than orientation.[2] She frequently employs non-professional actors scouted locally in Trieste and uses language—such as Triestine dialect and the process of learning Italian—as a tool to convey emotions and social hierarchies, noting that she loves "playing with language in my films." The soundtrack for A Year of School draws exclusively from indie rock and post-punk bands of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.[2] Samani incorporates autobiographical elements, particularly in A Year of School, inspired by her own teenage years in a similar school setting. Following the production demands of her magical realist debut, she intentionally pursued a contemporary story without period elements like horses or elaborate costumes.[2]Awards and nominations
Laura Samani has received the following major award for her work:- '''2022''' — [[David di Donatello]] — Best New Director (Migliore Regista Esordiente) — ''Small Body'' (Piccolo corpo) — Winner[12]