In early May, at the Bellaria Film Festival, Torneranno i lupi won the "Best Film" award in the Concorso Gabbiano, the section the festival dedicates to research and experimental filmmaking. The film is the graduation film of Bianca Vallino, Esther Kreiner and Elisa Cabbai, who completed the three-year training at ZeLIG in 2025. Before Bellaria, the film had already been screened in the International Competition at Visions du Réel in Nyon and at ZagrebDox. Three festivals quite different from one another: the first, Visions du Réel, is one of the international reference points for documentary filmmaking, not only for its programming but also for its industry network; ZagrebDox is a space historically devoted to documentaries from around the world; and Bellaria is an Italian festival that pays attention to research and innovation in cinematic language. All three festivals recognised the value of a debut film capable of holding together “family memory” and a "mythical" dimension with an uncommon maturity of vision.
I would like to use this editorial to think out loud about what it means today, for us at ZeLIG, to form that gaze.
Our three-year programme admits students every three years. This is not an organisational constraint, it is rather a pedagogical choice. It means that a group of people enters together, works together, gets to know each other deeply, goes through the crises and turning points of a long and often bumpy journey together. It means that those who teach have the time to follow each student individually, and that the practice carried out at the school is born of real relationships, not sporadic encounters. It means, above all, that one works in a context of co-creation from the very first day: we do not train isolated artists or professionals, but a conscious collective authorship, in which every role (directing, cinematography, editing, sound, production) is part of a shared responsibility.
Torneranno i lupi is exactly this: a film that bears the name of a director, Bianca Vallino, and is at the same time the result of a working group that made cinema together for three years.
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Andrea Ciuchetti on composing the score of Torneranno i lupi
Torneranno i lupi is one of four Italian films in competition at Visions du Réel. One of the things that stays with you is its original score, composed by Andrea Ciuchetti.
We asked him about his process and his relationship with the film.
Torneranno i lupi will have its world première at Visions du Réel on 19 of April.
For this edition of Tracking the Story, we bring together the voices behind the film: director Bianca Vallino, alongside Esther Kreiner (cinematography) and Elisa Cabbai (editing).
Cinema, for us, is always a collective process, shaped through exchange, tension, and shared responsibility.
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Torneranno i lupi, a ZeLIG graduation film by Bianca Vallino, Esther Kreiner and Elisa Cabbai has been selected in competition at Visions du Réel, one of the most important international festivals dedicated to documentary cinema.
Developed within ZeLIG’s three-year programme, Torneranno i lupi is the result of a long process of research, writing and production, shaped through collaboration and continuous dialogue.
The film will have its world premiere on April 19 in Nyon.
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Nóstos is the first 2025 graduation film to begin its festival path, and on March 12 it will be screened in Milan at the Sguardi Altrove – Women’s International Film Festival.
For this month’s Tracking the Story, we start with Simona Palmieri's reflections, the director. But a film is never a solitary act, as we see cinema as a process of co-creation, shaped by dialogue, friction, trust, and shared vision. That’s why Krystof Iobstraibizer, the cinematographer, and Giovanni Bez, the editor, have also added their voices to the conversation.
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On Friday, 20 February, our dear friend and ZeLIG 2013 graduate Alexandra Kaufmann passed away after battling a serious illness.
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On Thursday, January 15, we open with a masterclass on the work of Thomas Heise, at ZeLIG – School for Documentary (9.30–12.30), tracing a line across the work of one of the greatest European filmmakers of all time, moving through time, memory, wounds, at the margins of History.
In the evening and on Saturday, DocDay, organised by FAS - Film Association South Tyrol, continues at Filmclub with the Halle–Neustadt trilogy:
STAU. JETZT GEHT’S LOS (1992) – 18h
NEUSTADT STAU – DER STAND DER DINGE (2000) – 20h
Followed by an online Q&A with Katrin Schlösser (producer) and Peter Badel (DoP, long-time collaborator of Heise).
On Saturday, January 17, matinée at 10.30h:
KINDER. WIE DIE ZEIT VERGEHT (2008)
Followed by a Q&A with Marie Wilke, collaborator of Thomas Heise.
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HYBRID CINEMA
Lo spazio dove il cinema si reinventa: tra documentario e finzione, Erinnerung und Vorstellung, Traum und Wirklichkeit
Rassegna organizzata dalla | Veranstaltung organisiert von
ZeLIG - Scuola di documentario
in collaborazione con | In Zusammenarbeit mit
SNCCI - Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani
BFFB - Bolzano Film Festival Bozen
Pigrecoemme - Scuola di Cinema e Fotografia
Scopri il programma | Gesamtes Programm entdecken | BROCHURE
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2025 is a year of transition for ZeLIG and one full of new beginnings.
Our graduation films are now ready to start their journey into the world, while at the same time a new cycle opens with 30 students joining at the end of September.
This moment is also about connection: strengthening existing ties, creating new ones, and opening the school even more to the territory around us. Through partnerships, encounters and shared projects, ZeLIG steps into this new phase as both a place of training and a space for dialogue.
Here’s what’s coming up in the next weeks:
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Auch in diesem Jahr beteiligt sich ZeLIG – in Zusammenarbeit mit der IDM Film Commission Südtirol – an einer Seminarwoche, die sich der Entwicklung internationaler Co-Produktionen zwischen Italien, Österreich, Deutschland und der Schweiz widmet. Das Seminar findet in diesem Jahr in der HFF – Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München von Montag den 24. bis Freitag den 28. November statt.
Während der Woche werden ausgewählte Stoffe in kleinen, länderübergreifenden Teams gemeinsam weiterentwickelt. Die Teilnehmerinnen – bestehend aus Studierenden und jungen Filmschaffenden – arbeiten mit Unterstützung von Expertinnen aus Produktion und Förderung an konkreten Filmprojekten (Dokumentar- oder Spielfilm) mit Co-Produktionspotenzial.
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I film del secondo anno tornano sul grande schermo!
Dopo il successo della scorsa edizione, mercoledì 28 maggio 2025 alle ore 20:00 torna la serata di proiezione dei cortometraggi realizzati nel secondo anno del percorso formativo.
Filmmaker and journalist Tsai Tsung Lung joined us at ZeLIG during the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen to talk about the role of documentary and the documentarian. Missed it? No worries — we’ve put together some key takeaways for you!
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On Wednesday, April 9, at 9:30 AM, ZeLIG incollaboration with BFFB will host the masterclass "Mirror or Hammer? Documentary practices and field work in Taiwan" with Tsai Tsung Lung.
The event is free and requires a registration here.
Tsai Tsung Lung is a Taiwanese director and producer. He graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University with a Master degree in Mass Communication, specializing in documentary filmmaking. He started his career as a journalist for the Independence Morning Post and Wealth Magazine. Later he joined Investigation Report (Super TV) and Hall of Dissent (FTV) and took charge of the in-depth report and investigation.
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Two major public events will take place at ZeLIG in the coming weeks:
On Tuesday, March 18, starting at 9:30 AM, South Tyrolean award-winning film director Andreas Pichler will hold a masterclass on his latest film, Dangerously Close. The film won Best Documentary at the Prix Italia 2024 and the BLAUER PANTHER - TV and Streaming Award 2024 and was nominated for Best Film at the Realscreen Awards 2025 and the Silbersalz Science and Media Award 2024. It has also been successfully distributed in cinemas across Europe, drawing large audiences.
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On Thursday, February 13, at 8 p.m. at Filmclub in Bolzano there will be the screening of AMOR, Italian award-winning documentary realised by Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri, who will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A with the audience afterwards. The screening is part of the film program DOCDAY, organised by FAS - Film Association South Tyrol together with the Art Gallery LUNGOMARE, who will host a talk with the film director at 18.30h of the same day at Filmclub, around the topic "Rivers and Art".
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Johannes Hammel is a Swiss filmmaker based in Vienna. He has worked as a DoP on numerous independent projects in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, including recent films by Ruth Beckermann.
On Thursday, 16 January, he will be in Bolzano to present FAVORITEN by Ruth Beckermann (20:00 at Filmclub), where he served as DoP. The following day, Friday, 17 January, he will hold an open masterclass at ZeLIG - School for Documentary, starting at 9:30. The session will focus on the production process of the film and his professional career.
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After a successful pitch held in Bolzano on the 3rd of October, the new ZeLIG graduation films, which will close the three-years cycle 2022 - 2025, are now entering their production phase.
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On Thursday, 3 October, starting at 9.30h at ZeLIG, there will be the Pitch of the upcoming graduation films.
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"Do you get me?", graduation film realised by Otto Lazić-Reuschel, Julia Inderst and Angela Disanto, received the award for the Best Medium-Short Documentary at the "Acthung Berlin" Film Festival, which took place in the German capital in April.
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Our students Simona Palmieri, Esther Kreiner and Elisa Cabbai, and our graduate Nuno Escudeiro, received two important awards at the 72nd edition of the Trento Film Festival.
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