The International Competition took place within the Short Film Week
(8th -14th September 2008), this being a larger event compared to
previous years so as to let the audience enjoy the various offerings of
the festival.
The Week opened with the presentation of Il regalo più bello. Scritti di cinema and Quando Lorenzo visse a Barcellona. Quaderni e e-mail della borsa Erasmus, the two new publications drawn from Lorenzo Vecchio’s writings, and continued with Giro Giro Corto – mostra di cinema piccolo, a festival focused on short films for teenagers and made by teenagers.
In addiction to the international competition, Magma offered: I move so I am: the art of Gerrit Van Dijk a retrospective devoted to the multi-award winning Dutch short film director Gerrit van Dijk (president of the jury 2008); the Bridges
section, an overview of three short film producers and distributors in
Europe and the Mediterranean; besides that, debates, concerts and
video-parties.

2008 Awards:

“For the ability to recount a painful
and troublesome family context, however full of dignity and love, in a
silent respect, without the help of music, voice-over or dialogues”:
this is the reason given by the jury of Magma 2008, presided over by the Dutch short film director Gerrit van Dijk, for awarding the Lorenzo Vecchio Prize to Three of us,
by the Indian director Umesh Kulkarni. The documentary represents the
life of a poor Indian family that has to cope everyday with the son’s
handicap.

The jury also awarded four special mentions, one for each section of the competition. Diente por ojo, by the Spanish Eivind Holmboe, was awarded as best narrative short film.
“Despite presenting a complex narrative structure worth of a feature
film – the jury said – by showing skill in direction and brilliant
performances, this short film entwines seven stories through a mutual
theme: each character is guilty, but everyone expiates a sin they
haven’t committed.”

Zietek by Bartosz Blaschke (Poland) was awarded the mention as best documentary,
telling the story of a sculptor “who makes his wooden creatures and
lovingly looks after them in his own house, as a modern Pygmalion”, the
members of the jury explained.

Thanks to “a graphic that perfectly complements both the subject and the accompaniment of a sweet and cruel voice” For a better world by the german Barbara Hlali won the experimental section:
“it sarcastically tells us that we are trying our best for a better
world, but actually it is better for ourselves only”, the jury
commented.

La memoria dei cani by
Simone Massi (Italy) was awarded the special mention as best animated
short film: “a superb black and white film, a poem sculpted into
animation”