Bruno Bozzetto
Considered a master by the animators of Pixar, celebrated with an exhibition by Disney, awarded with very important international awards: Bruno Bozzetto is the one who made Italian animation become "adult." Before him - with rare exceptions - animated drawing in our country was relegated to entertainment for the very young or confined to "Carosello" advertising films. Bozzetto made a qualitative leap forward for animation in our house by being the first to make a feature-length animated film: West and Soda (1965), a western that even seems to anticipate certain solutions and suggestions of Sergio Leone. Vip - mio fratello superuomo (1968) is the amusing story of two superheroes, one of whom seems to have neither the physique du role nor the superpowers usually associated with such characters. Above all, Allegro non troppo (1976)-whose episodic structure accompanied by famous pieces of classical music is reminiscent of that of Disney's Fantasia (1940)-marks a definite step forward in his career, both aesthetically and formally.
An animator, cartoonist and director, but also producer, writer, screenwriter, editor and musician, from the 1960s to the present Bruno Bozzetto has made more than three hundred films that have earned him 130 international awards, including the Winsor McCay Prize, five Silver Ribbons, a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and an Oscar nomination (for the short Cavallette).
In recognition of his decade-long artistic career, IULM University, on the occasion of theopening ceremony of the 2023/2024 Academic Year, awarded Bruno Bozzetto the Master Ad Honorem in the Arts of Storytelling .
Thus Prof. Antonio Scurati, Scientific Director of the Master in the Arts of Storytelling, and the committee - formed by Prof. Valentina Garavaglia, Prof. Daniela Cardini, Prof. Paolo Giovannetti and Prof. fabio Vittorini - motivated the award: "A keen and witty observer of human beings, their behaviors and contradictions, a lucid interpreter of social dynamics and transformations, capable of sharp humor, subtle irony but also fervent and poetic imagination, Bruno Bozzetto used the language of animation to tell the world and return it to us in the form of images. Through his work, Italian animated cinema came of age and gained worldwide appreciation, so much so that many of the world's most visionary animation talents, starting with John Lasseter and the designers of Pixar, consider him a Master. Disney's own daughter, Diane, in 2013 wanted to dedicate a prestigious exhibition to him at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Compared to traditional canons, Bozzetto explored storytelling techniques always marked by traits of clear innovation, experimenting with short forms, unexpected reversals of point of view and lightning-fast analog connections in narrative development."
Closing the ceremony was a screening in the Auditorium of the new authorial short film Sapiens?, conceived by Bruno Bozzetto and produced by Studio Bozzetto in collaboration with Rai Kids. The short film is in 2D/3D CGI animation: to the notes of music by Beethoven, Chopin and Verdi, three stories follow one another that feature man and his behavior toward nature and society, particularly his attitudes of violence and intolerance toward the different