The INAF-Event Horizon prize for scientific merit has been awarded for the first time at the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival 2023.The film "Restore Point" (trailer) claimed this distinction, with director Robert Hloz receiving the honor.
INAF-Osservatorio di Trieste has been sponsoring the Sci+Fi Festival for a long time and has promoted this special prize for movies breaking away from the clichés that associate "scientific discovery" with "dystopian future" and facing futuristic challenges in the open field, without a blind faith in progress but also free from preconceptions.
(From left to right, Fabrizio Fiore, director of the Trieste Observatory,
Michele Scarcia, creator of the artistic work, the director Robert Hloz with the Event Horizon award,
and Stefano Cristiani, president of the jury).
The jury formed to award the prize, an artistic creation by Michele Scarcia, found remarkable cohesion, yet faced a challenging decision during this initial edition of the INAF-Event Horizon prize. Among the selected works, two stood out significantly, each uniquely distinct in form, one an animated film and the other a live-action "actors" film, both exceptionally accomplished.
Restore Point, has been rewarded "for having been able to deal with particularly relevant and timeless themes in the scientific and social fields with particular filmic effectiveness and innovation. The cyberpunk narrative structure, which echoes Philip Dick in Blade Runner and Total Recall, with some notes of Soylent Green and Frankenstein, delicately touches on topics that man has always dealt with: the passage from life to death, second chances and the meaning of life that cannot be reduced to the contents of a hard disk.
Utopian ideals are confronted with a dark and dystopian social scenario, creating an engaging juxtaposition. All of this is presented with images that are not only stylish but also serve a functional purpose. Restore Point is a cinematic jewel in which brutalist architecture transforms Prague into a metropolis of the future and the curves of the buildings recall the turning points in Detective Trochinowska's investigations."
A Special Mention went to the film "Mars Express" (tariler), which then won various awards at the festival, including the Asteroid,
"for having been able to condense a breathtaking thriller that addresses the never-so-actual theme of the relationship between men and robots into an animated film. The impeccable style takes up and develops, in an original, European form, the best tradition of Japanese animation and authors such as Moebius. The film achieves an exemplary balance between the richness of imaginative futuristic elements, always functional to the story, and the codes of a film noir, which keep the viewer glued to the screen. Between Asimov and "The Big Sleep", the film reaches a final resolution that leaves us thoughtfully meditating not only on the essence of humanity in the face of technological development, but also on the relationship with the stranger."
Restore Point, has been rewarded "for having been able to deal with particularly relevant and timeless themes in the scientific and social fields with particular filmic effectiveness and innovation. The cyberpunk narrative structure, which echoes Philip Dick in Blade Runner and Total Recall, with some notes of Soylent Green and Frankenstein, delicately touches on topics that man has always dealt with: the passage from life to death, second chances and the meaning of life that cannot be reduced to the contents of a hard disk.
Utopian ideals are confronted with a dark and dystopian social scenario, creating an engaging juxtaposition. All of this is presented with images that are not only stylish but also serve a functional purpose. Restore Point is a cinematic jewel in which brutalist architecture transforms Prague into a metropolis of the future and the curves of the buildings recall the turning points in Detective Trochinowska's investigations."
A Special Mention went to the film "Mars Express" (tariler), which then won various awards at the festival, including the Asteroid,
"for having been able to condense a breathtaking thriller that addresses the never-so-actual theme of the relationship between men and robots into an animated film. The impeccable style takes up and develops, in an original, European form, the best tradition of Japanese animation and authors such as Moebius. The film achieves an exemplary balance between the richness of imaginative futuristic elements, always functional to the story, and the codes of a film noir, which keep the viewer glued to the screen. Between Asimov and "The Big Sleep", the film reaches a final resolution that leaves us thoughtfully meditating not only on the essence of humanity in the face of technological development, but also on the relationship with the stranger."
Winners of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival 23rd edition
