For the third year in a row, the Venice International Film Critics’ Week (SIC) celebrates the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film. White Shadow by Noaz Deshe wins the prize for the best first-time director of the whole 70. Venice International Film Festival 2013. The award, consisting of 100,000 USD, is offered by Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis’ Filmauro.

The film was presented in competition at the 28. Venice International Film Critics’ Week – independent section of the 70. Venice Film Festival – and is produced by Ginevra Elkann and Francesco Melzi D’Eril (for Asmara Film), with Shadoworks, Mocajo Film, and Phantasma Films.

Francesco Di Pace, General Delegate of the Venice Critics’ Week states: “Noaz Deshe’s film is a bet we have believed in since the very beginning of our selection process this year. The visionary talent and intensity expressed by this young stateless director, apparently have won the hearts of the jurors as well. I am sure they were moved by a dramatic and powerful topic, such as that of the persecution of albinos in Africa.”

“The Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film makes all of us producers extremely happy, as is a prestigious reward of an uncommon talent we all believed in from the beginning, and like us, the International Film Critics’ Week curators did – states producer Ginevra Elkann.

“Noaz Deshe’s film White Shadow is the result of  an italian and international cooperation of young producers and equally young crative and talented minds, who still believe there’s a lot to explore in the art of Cinematography, which, as a reflection of the world we live in, is in continuous and eternal developing.”

http://www.sicvenezia.it/2249/edizione-2013/news-2013/leone-del-futuro-a-white-shadow/?lang=en