balaena has been shortlisted for the 2024 Henki Art Prize! The committee selected 12 artworks for the longlist along with 5 finalists. More information here.
balaena wins third prize at the 32nd The Emerald Coast National
A total of 117 artists with 335 artworks applied to the show, which was guest judged by Sarah Knobel, Professor of the Art and Art History Department and Digital Media and Film co-chair at St. Lawrence University. A huge thank you to the Mattie Kelly Art Center Galleries at Northwest Florida State College, Niceville, FL for the support!
balaena splashes around art venues
I am very happy to announce that my film balaena will be exhibited around some art venues in the coming months:
Included in the group show FEAR curated by ArteAlta and Alina Foundation, the film will be on view in Aosta (Italy) August 29-October 1 2024. The show received 432 submissions from 18 countries and tehy selected 30 finalists. balaena won the show’s second prize.
balaena will be featured also at the 32nd Annual Emerald Coast National juried art exhibition, which will be on view September 5 - December 12 at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries in NIceville, Florida.
Another venue will be announced soon!
Short Film Day 2023
🇮🇹 Grazie al favoloso Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio per il supporto che continuamente dimostra nella promozione dei cortometraggi italiani! Onorata di avere balaena (2022) incluso nel programma di quest'anno del Short Film Day--evento rivolto alle rappresentanze Italiane all'estero i cui cortometraggi sono riconosciuti come il meglio della produzione italiana dell'ultimo periodo.
🇬🇧 A huge thank you to the Italian Short Film Center for the continuous support of Italian independent productions! My film balaena (2022) is part of the Short Film Day 2023--an event for Italian embassies and cultural centers abroad that showcases the best contemporary Italian short form production.
JUNE/JULY UPDATES
balaena (2022) won Best Experimental Film at the 28th New Jersey International Film Festival! Thank you @njfilmfestival for the support.
balaena will also be screening on July 4th in Tranas (Sweden) at the @tranas.at.the.fringe --I just recorded a fun interview with curator @laura___bianco 🙏 -- soon available online!
balaena is also currently part of #goddessesandmonsters -- a show hosted by @ladiesroomla #ladiesroomla curated by @associationofhystericcurators on view until August 31
Lastly, you can watch WWW {the whale who wasn't} (2019) on the 3rd amazing issue of @flatjournal : After Tomorrow
John Michael Kohler Arts Center Announces 2023 Arts/Industry Residents
Alessia Cecchet is so excited to announce that she will be in residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for 15 weeks starting at the end of January. At Kohler, Alessia will be working in the foundry and she will make objects and string puppets made of iron for her upcoming project la memoria degli smiracoli (in-progress title).
FULL PRESS RELEASE can be found here.
balaena's Italian Premiere at the 40th Torino Film Festival
This week balaena (2022) will have its Italian Premiere at the 40th Torino Film Festival. My deep appreciation to this festival and its programmers, that throughout the years has featured innovative and exploratory work!
Al Bano's Dinosaurs premiere in Los Angeles
Al Bano’s Dinosaurs (2022), an experimental animation that employs found images to deconstruct and reconstruct dinosaur representation, will be screened Saturday, November 12, in Los Angeles at ArtShare LA. TIME: 8:00 pm (doors open 7:45) WHERE: 801 E. 4th Place Los Angeles, CA
balaena at the 40th Torino Film Festival
After Uppsala, balaena (2022) will have its Italian premiere at the 40th Torino Film Festival (Italy), marking the 4th Torino Film Festival selection for Alessia’s work. Previous selections include Onikuma (2016), il sentire dell’occhio (2017), WWW {the whale who wasn’t} (2018)— THANK YOU TFF for bringing us back again!
World Premiere of balaena this weekend in Uppsala (Sweden)
Alessia’s newest project, balaena (2022), will have its World Premiere at the 41 Uppsala Short Film Festival!
Alessia Cecchet: Chasing the Whale Who Wasn't (VIDEO)
The ARTIST TALK + SCREENING (WWW [the whale who wasn’t}) that took place on September 8, 2022 as part of the Lecture Series organized by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, in partnership with the Department of Culture and Communication, CSU Maritime Academy, is now available to watch!
September 2022 screenings and artist talk
Alessia Cecchet will be doing an ARTIST TALK + SCREENING (WWW [the whale who wasn’t}) on September 8, 2022 as part of the Lecture Series organized by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, in partnership with the Department of Culture and Communication, CSU Maritime Academy. The Lecture Series will run during the weeks before the 24-hour Moby Dick reading marathon in the Maritime Museum (October 22).
Additionally, WWW {the whale who wasn’t} will be on view for a month (Oct 7-Nov 6) at Visions in the Nunnery (Bow Arts, London, UK), the gallery’s biennial showcase of moving image, digital and performance art. More info here.
il sentire dell’occhio {The Hearing of the Eye} will be screened at Braziers International Film Festival (UK) on September 3rd.
Onikuma on the Slamdance Youtube Channel
Big news! Finally you can watch Onikuma for free by tuning to the official Slamdance YouTube Channel! So happy to see this happen - such an honor to be supported by this amazing film festival.
agnes films interviews Alessia Cecchet
This month I had the privilege to be interviewed by agnes film. It was a pleasure to talk about my practice and recent work! You can check out the interview here.
Virtual Artist Talk at SUNY Oswego
Very excited to be a virtual visiting artist at SUNY Oswego next week!
Review of Onikuma on Film International
David Finkelstein wrote a wonderful and on-point review of Onikuma, which has been published on Film International! You can find the full review here.
The film, with its open-ended, poetic sequences of metaphorical action, presents a field of possible meanings, and each viewer will be able to build their own interpretation from the experience of watching the action. Cecchet has used consummate artistic skill in rendering these actions into a wordless assemblage of images and sounds that have the precise force of myth: the ability to take our primordial fears and transform them into legend.
David Finkelstein
ONIKUMA on VOD
Onikuma is now streaming on FlixaTV, a non-profit platform that promotes the work of female filmmakers.
il sentire dell'occhio {The Hearing of the Eye} on show in Edinburgh
il sentire dell'occhio {The Hearing of the Eye} (2017) will be screening at the OPEN SSA/VAS show at the Royal Academy of Edinburgh Dec 22 to January 30! More info here.
WWW {the whale who wasn't} at Encounters Film Festival
It’s been a while since I have created a news post for a festival selection - usually I just update the “upcoming screenings” section. However, I think the selection of WWW {the whale who wasn’t} at Encounters Film Festival (Bristol, UK) deserves its own post. I am very excited to announce that the science fiction short will be playing on Thu, Sep 26th, 8:00 PM @ Watershed - Cinema 1 in Bristol, England. Tickets can be ordered here.
Conference in Bologna - Animated Cinema of Propaganda
Alessia will be one of the guest speakers at a conference organized by the Future Film Festival (Bologna, Italy). On April 25th (Italy’s “Liberation Day”) the Future Film Festival will celebrate freedom of speech and freedom from consensus by bringing attention to the world of propaganda and animation’s role in it. Don’t miss it if you happen to be in Bologna! The event will take place in Via San Vitale, 65 at 6pm on 4/25.
