It is a program, richer every year, that of Animaphix film festival, created and organized by the QB association chaired by Rosalba Colla, with the honorary patronage of the City of Bagheria. A program that, through experimental animation cinematography, has reached its 10th year.
A sort of 7 days of events, which sees the backdrop of Villa Cattolica, home of the Guttuso Museum as the protagonist along with the 92 films that will be screened for a wide audience that in these first days has already flocked to the call of Giovanni Sollima‘s cello and Mimmo Cuticchio‘s “Cunto.”
But also serving as a valuable corollary to the festival, which is increasingly international and lively for this form of cinema capable of being a vehicle and bearer of new narrative languages, are four exhibitions. For the “Visual Arts” section, the following are proposed by the QB organization: “L’Idée” the solo exhibition of Théodore Ushev, an award-winning Bulgarian director, Canadian by adoption, who was awarded the Renato Guttuso 2024 prize for his extraordinary production of works in animated painting.
Presented exclusively at the Festival, Ushev’s exhibition drawing inspiration from Franz Masarel’s graphic novel of the same name and Berthold Bartosch’s 1932 animated film. The exhibition transforms the exhibition space into a visual narrative of elements, frames, paintings, portraits and nude female figures, linked in a new, non-linear interpretation of the graphic novel.
Animaphix also hosts the installation “Space Beyond. Points of bodily dilation” by Fiber Art artist, Filly Cusenza; an immersive journey through Fiber Art, a place of emotions where we rewind the thread of a story made of meeting places, microcosms that bring us back to emotions and memories: the bed, the sofa, objects, sheets, bodies, mending as Filly Cusenza tells us in our interview, which below, we quote.
But it does not stop there with art. Also evocative is the video-sculpture installation “Corpus” by Dario Denso Andriolo, created through the skillful use of video technology integrated into a physical sculptural structure, in which the artist transforms Sicily into a vibrant stage, where images and sounds are interwoven to evoke the depth of Sicilian roots. The video sculpture explores themes such as collective memory, cultural identity and the dialogue between tradition and modernity.
Also of interest is Nicola Scafidi‘s photographic exhibition, an interview with his daughter, Angela Scafidi, curator of the exhibition on film sets in Sicily. Nicola Scafidi, photojournalist and contributor to the Palermo newspaper “L’Ora,” restores moments of life of the workers and actors engaged in the making of films that have entered the history of cinema: from Luchino Visconti’s “Gattopardo” to Francesco Rosi’s trilogy on Italian mysteries with “Salvatore Giuliano,” “Il Caso Mattei,” and “Lucky Luciano,” and again from Roberto Rossellini’s “Viva L’Italia” to Vittorio De Sica’s “Il Viaggio,” from William Dieterle’s “Vulcano” to Pierpaolo Pasolini’s “The Canterbury Tales”; from Damiano Damiani’s “Il giorno della Civetta” to Alberto Lattuada’s “Mafioso.”

The exhibitions can be visited from July 22 to July 28, 2024 at the following times: 7 p.m. – 12 p.m. “L’Idée” – solo exhibition by Théodore Ushev; 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Exhibition by Nicola Scafidi. Film sets in Sicily at Villa San Cataldo; 7 p.m. – 12 p.m. installation: Spazio Oltre by Filly Cusenza; 7 p.m. – 12 p.m. video-sculpture installation Orma by Dario Denso Andriolo.

Like every year, there is also a space dedicated to the little ones with ANIMAKIDS active from 8:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m., the play-recreational space / play-recreational space, with games, readings, creativity, activities for the little ones, curated by Le Giuggiole.

Animaphix – Nuovi Linguaggi Contemporanei Film Festival is made possible thanks to the contribution and patronage of the Ministry of Culture – General Directorate for Cinema and Audiovisual; the Sicilia Film Commission – which operates within the Department of Tourism, Sports and Entertainment of the Sicilian Region; and the Municipality of Bagheria.
With the support of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Sicily (Arpa Sicilia), the Arts and Humanities Council of the Quebéc Ministry of Culture and Communications, the Quebéc Delegation in Rome, the Instituto Cervantes in Palermo, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, the Czech Center in Rome, and the Polish Institute in Rome.