SCREENINGS & AWARDS

World Premiere: Visions du Réel – National Competition 2024

2024 DOK Leipzig (International Premiere)
2024 Festival dei Popoli (Italian Premiere)
2024 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2024 RIDM (North American Premiere)
2025 Antenna DFF (Australian Premiere)
2025 True/False Film Fest (US Premiere)
2025 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
2025 DOXA Documentary FF
2025 Women’s Film Festival Barcelona MIFDB
2025 Festival International du Film Insulaire de Groix (French Premiere)
2025 Festival Alexandre Trauner Art/Film Fesztivál
2025 Glimmerglass Film Days
2025 Cinemamed
2025 This Human World
2025 Solidarity Human Rights Film Festival

And more: Instituto Svizzero a Roma

AWARDS

• Special Jury Award in National Competition at Visions du Réel 2024
• Prize of the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) at DOK Leipzig 2024
• CG Entertainment Distribution Award to the Best Italian Film at Festival dei Popoli 2024

‘In a world that seems to reward only those who prove to be strong and imperturbable, the protagonist of this film claims her right to be fragile, and to make this fragility, that of the territory in which she lives and of the people around her, the emotional starting point for a path of growth towards freedom, resistance, the construction of a better future.’

• Shortlisted for the David di Donatello Award 2025
• Selected in the Cinema del reale section of Nastri d’Argento 2025
• Environment and Society Award at Cinemambiente Torino 2025
• Gaetano Capizzi Special Recognition at Cinemambiente Torino 2025
• Ile d’Or Prize at Festival International du Film Insulaire de Groix 2025
• Best Film in the International Documentary Competition at Solidarity Human Rights Film Festival 2025

PRESS

Reviews: Testkammer, Filmkommentaren.dk, Modern Times Review, Cineuropa, Journey Into Cinema, High on Films, Film Fest Report
Interviews: Testkammer, Business Doc Europe, La Gruyère (FR)

***

“aesthetically pleasing, delicate, and emotionally charged direct cinema” … “Like the succulent plants lovingly cultivated by her father, Francesca Scalisi captured Valentina’s late but moving blossoming in a documentary that prompts us to reflect on our relationship with territories and how they shape our lives.”

Aurelie Geron, Film Fest Report

Valentina and the MUOSters echoes the work of two great contemporary masters of Italian documentary filmmaking: Gianfranco Rossi (the portrait of a small community caught up in the turmoil of global events brings Fire at Sea to mind) and Roberto Minervini, especially his opus about people on the margins of society in the American South. But Francesca Scalisi opts for a more intimate approach, centred on her protagonist and her immediate surroundings. In this respect, the cinematography of the director’s regular collaborator Stefania Bona, who adopts a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, foregrounds Valentina to the fullest, whilst also getting the most out of the usually barren landscape. But the real “MVP” among the film crew is composer and sound designer Olga Kokcharova, whose work in both departments creates the perfect synergy of droning noise, reminding us that Valentina and her family feel constantly threatened by a situation which far exceeds their ability to change it.

Marko Stojiljković, Cineuropa

“The film looks at the problem at the root, eye to eye, and scans all its surrounding tangle of hazards. It gives credence, articulates, and legitimizes the forced distress of citizens whose home turf gets reappropriated and seized from them under the pretext of a military target. […]The film refuses to consign an all-is-lost wretchedness in its gaze on the people, investing them with agency, resolve, and grit that expresses itself as much as it can within contained frameworks of existence. Overall, “Valentina and the MUOSters” is a quietly, solemnly reflective work.”

Debanjan Dhar, High on Films

“This sensitive documentary zeroes in on one Sicilian woman under threat from American expansionism. Finely threading the needle between critique and poetry, realism and lyricism, Scalisi’s nuanced documentary feature counts the human cost of life under the shadow of military might. […] What makes Valentina and the MUOSters so compelling is the way that its critique is folded within an expressive film language, utilising a tight 4:3 ratio, carefully framed takes and a keen eye for contemplative moments…(…) This film would work simply as a heartfelt story of arrested development, a life in perpetual limbo. Yet with the added presence of American ground satellites, Valentina and the MUOSters is imbued with a powerful political potency.”

Redmond Bacon, Journey into Cinema