ACADEMY LAGO ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Lago Original Soundtrack is the project of Lago Film Fest dedicated to the world of film soundtracks in all its facets, from composition to sound design.

 

The project consists of:

  • Lago Original Soundtrack – Federico Savina Award for the best short film soundtrack;

  • a program of concerts, soundtracks, workshops, and masterclasses that take place during the Lago Film Fest.

 

The award is presented annually by the Academy composed of musicians, sound designers, and composers. Professionals and artists who have agreed to be part of the Academy, a growing permanent think tank that serves as a reference point for all project initiatives.

 

The Academy was born from an idea by Federico Savina – an Italian sound engineer of great relevance to the history of cinema – the soul of the project until 2023, the year of his passing. Due to the significance of his contribution, we have decided to name the Lago Original Soundtrack award after him.

 

Since 2024, the Academy has been chaired by Lorenzo Tomio (composer and sound designer), who has supported and collaborated with the Lago Film Fest since 2009.

ACADEMY LAGO ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Lago Original Soundtrack is the project of Lago Film Fest dedicated to the world of film soundtracks in all its facets, from composition to sound design.

 

The project consists of:

  • Lago Original Soundtrack – Federico Savina Award for the best short film soundtrack;

  • a program of concerts, soundtracks, workshops, and masterclasses that take place during the Lago Film Fest.

 

The award is presented annually by the Academy composed of musicians, sound designers, and composers. Professionals and artists who have agreed to be part of the Academy, a growing permanent think tank that serves as a reference point for all project initiatives.

 

The Academy was born from an idea by Federico Savina – an Italian sound engineer of great relevance to the history of cinema – the soul of the project until 2023, the year of his passing. Due to the significance of his contribution, we have decided to name the Lago Original Soundtrack award after him.

 

Since 2024, the Academy has been chaired by Lorenzo Tomio (composer and sound designer), who has supported and collaborated with the Lago Film Fest since 2009.

THE ACADEMY

Lorenzo Tomio

President of the Academy

Lorenzo is a composer, guitarist, and sound designer based in Rome, Italy. His work ranges from composing soundtracks for film and television to collaborations in contemporary theater, dance, and advertising. He studied Composition for Film at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana with the Oscar-winning composer Luis E. Bacalov, receiving a Certificate of Merit, and at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema in Rome with the Oscar-winning composer Ludovic Bource. He holds a degree in engineering from the University of Padua and in music composition from the Conservatorio di Adria. Some recent films for which he has composed soundtracks include: “Dampyr” by Riccardo Chemello (Eagle Picture, Bonelli, Brandon Box, Sony Entertainment), “Succede (That’s life)” by Francesca Mazzoleni, produced by Indigo Film and distributed by Warner Bros.; “Omicidio all’italiana” by Maccio Capatonda, produced by Lotus film and distributed by Medusa; “Piuma” by Roan Johnson, produced by Palomar and distributed by Lucky Red, Official Selection at the 73rd Venice Film Festival; “The Writer with no hands” by William Westaway.

Roberto Angelini

Born in 1975, he made his debut as a singer-songwriter in 2001 with the album “Il Signor Domani” (Virgin). He participated in Sanremo Giovani in the same year with the homonymous song and won the Critics’ Award “Mia Martini.” In 2003, he released the album “Angelini” (EMI), which includes the hits “GattoMatto” and “La Gioia del Risveglio.” He co-produced Niccolò Fabi’s successful and multi-award-winning album “Tradizione e Tradimento” (2019). He wrote the song “Calore,” which launched Emma Marrone’s career with her victory on “Amici” in 2010. Since 2013, he has been alongside Diego “Zoro” Bianchi on the shows “Gazebo” and “Propaganda Live.” In 2021, under the label FioriRari, the songs “Incognita” and “Condor” were released as previews of his latest album.

Enrico Ascoli

Enrico Ascoli works in the field of sound art and multimedia installations as a Sound Artist, Sound Designer, and Music Producer. He creates sounds and music for documentaries, animated films, and advertising commercials. He conducts personal research in the areas of field recording, cognitive research, and electroacoustic music. In the realm of contemporary art, he creates sound installations, musical compositions, and performances, typically site-specific and interactive with the environment. His works often involve the use of everyday objects, cooking processes, kinetic sculptures to create pieces that oscillate between the abstract and socio-cultural perspectives.

Angelo Bonanni

Born in 1978 in Tivoli, and spending his childhood in a suburban area on the outskirts of Rome, Angelo Bonanni developed a passion for technology, musical experimentation, and cult horror from an early age. After ten years as a boom operator, he made his debut as a sound recordist in 2009. He has had numerous experiences with prominent producers, directors, actors, and technicians, working on various films, short films, documentaries, and commercials, earning him several awards, recognitions, and nominations: three David di Donatello Awards – in 2016 for “Non essere cattivo” by Claudio Caligari, in 2017 for “Veloce come il vento” by Matteo Rovere, and in 2020 for “Il Primo Re” by Matteo Rovere; two Nastro d’Argento Awards and two Ciak d’Oro Awards. Together with a team of professionals he has formed over the years, he now selects major international productions, auteur films, and debut works.

Marta Del Grandi

Marta Del Grandi is a singer-songwriter from Milan. Trained as a jazz musician, she studied at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan and in Belgium at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. She later moved first to China for a brief period and then to Nepal, where she stayed for two and a half years in Kathmandu. Living in such a different place and getting to know it deeply greatly influences her perspective on the world and consequently the music and lyrics she writes for her solo debut “Until We Fossilize” (2021). The album, released by the British label Fire Records, is an avant-pop work that blends folk-rock styles, Lynchian atmospheres, and cinematic arrangements reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks. In 2023, she followed up with the album “Selva” (Fire Records), which was acclaimed by both the audience and critics, placing her among the most prominent emerging talents in the national scene.

Giulio Ragno Favero

Giulio Ragno Favero is a multi-instrumentalist musician, sound engineer, and record producer. He has been on stage for over 20 years as a bassist and guitarist for Il Teatro degli Orrori and One Dimensional Man, and as a drummer for Putiferio, for which he also handled the artistic production of their releases. He has shared the stage with prominent names in the international rock scene such as Iggy Pop, Linkin Park, Sex Pistols, Queens Of The Stone Age, Melvins, and many others. He works as a studio and live sound engineer for ZU, Marina Rei, Karakaz, Appino, Bachi da Pietra, Management del Dolore Post Operatorio, Fast Animal Slow Kids, and many more. He is also a teacher of recording and mixing for Sound By Side, an association that includes some of the best Italian and international sound engineers and producers.

Francesco Finocchiaro

Francesco Finocchiaro is a researcher in Musicology at the University of Milan and a Privatdozent at the University of Innsbruck. He focuses on the relationships between composition, theory, and aesthetics in 20th-century music. He curated the Italian edition of Arnold Schönberg’s treatise “Il pensiero musicale” (Astrolabio-Ubaldini, 2011) and has published various essays on the Viennese School in international journals. He has taught and conducted research in various universities and conservatories in Italy and abroad. Among his publications are the monographs “Modernismo musicale e cinema tedesco nel Primo Novecento” (LIM, and in English, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and “Dietro un velo di organza” (AUP, 2020).

Giorgi Koberidze

Giorgi Koberidze is a composer of electronic and classical music hailing from Georgia. He is a teacher of computer music at the Tbilisi Conservatory, as well as at Ilia University and the private music school “303 Herz”. His recent experiments, which are connected to traditional Georgian music, have already been successful, winning the first prize at the Tbilisi Conservatoire Composers Awards. Furthermore, he has been selected as a “SHAPE+” artist, collaborating with a musical partner in the collective project “Awwwara”. His soundtrack for “What do we see when we look at the sky?” earned second place at the International Cinephile Society Awards and was nominated for Best Music at the German Film Critic Prize. His latest musical composition “Forests, Tales, Cities, Forests” won the Tsinandali Prize, the main artistic award in Georgia.

Stefano Lentini

Stefano Lentini is an Italian composer, producer, and musician, known for his work on film soundtracks. He is particularly recognized for his collaboration with the Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, for whom he composed the Stabat Mater for the film “The Grandmaster,” which was nominated for two Academy Awards. He has also composed the soundtracks for “Mare Fuori” (Rai/Netflix), “La Porta Rossa” (Rai), “Braccialetti Rossi” (Rai), and “Studio Battaglia” (Rai/BBC). Two times Platinum award, his music has been described in various ways: eclectic, unconventional, independent. Rolling Stone magazine has called it “a journey through the human psyche.”

Sara Loreni

Sara Loreni is an Italian singer, performer, producer, and songwriter. Since 2010, she has performed hundreds of concerts throughout Italy, in London, and in France, sharing the stage with Gary Lucas, Cristina Donà, Paola Turci, and Ginevra Di Marco. She has opened for Morgan, Simone Cristicchi, and Thony, and in 2016 and 2020, she toured as a backing vocalist and soloist with Vinicio Capossela. She has played with bands ranging from 2 to 7 members, and in recent years, she has refined a set that highlights her voice alongside electronics: loop station, synthesizers, drum machines, and standalone equipment. She has had various experiences on TV, including participating in the ninth edition of X Factor in 2015, where she decided to leave the show after making it to the Home Visits round.

Simone Manetti

Born in Livorno in 1978, he is a director and film editor. From 2009 to the present day, Manetti has edited more than 20 works including feature films, documentaries, and series. His directorial works have been broadcasted on Rai, Sky, Arte, and Netflix, and have received prestigious nominations such as those from the BFI London Film Festival and the Nastri d’Argento. He is currently involved in developing new projects with various film productions such as Notorious Picture, Groenlandia, Cattleya, and Loft.

Johann Merrich

Sound organizer and part of the duo L’Impero della Luce, she is an independent researcher in the fields of electronic music history. She is the author of the books “Breve Storia della Musica Elettronica e delle sue Protagoniste” (Arcana, 2019) and “Le Pioniere della Musica Elettronica” (Auditorium, 2012). She is a member of the scientific committee of the Interdepartmental Research Center for Radio of USMARADIO – University of the Republic of San Marino. She creates and conducts workshops on listening practices inspired by the research of Cage, Oliveros, Kubisch, R. M. Schafer, Lockwood, and Westerkamp.

Ginevra Nervi

Ginevra Nervi is a composer and performer based in Rome. She wrote the original music for Netflix, Sky, Rai and Prime Video projects. Many of the films, series and docufilms with the composer’s signature have been presented or selected in the most prestigious festivals such as the Mostra Internazionale di Cinema di Venezia, Locarno Film Festival and Torino Film Festival. Ginevra also had a nomination for the David di Donatello as Best Original Song for “Miles Away”, a song she composed for the soundtrack of “Non Odiare” directed by Mauro Mancini. In the last period she has also received recognition as a Talent of Genoa, her hometown, as well as the Rota Award and the Festival della Colonna Sonora. Today Ginevra is considered one of the greatest exponents of the new generation of composers for images, but at the same time she continues her career as a performer, thanks to which she has participated in important festivals such as the Ment Festival, Locus Festival, FOG Festival (Triennale Milano), Transart, Spring Attitude and Santarcangelo.

Mirko Perri

Mirko Perri, co-founder of the InHouse studio in Rome, works as a sound designer and supervises audio post-production. Over the years, he has collaborated with prominent Italian directors including Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Matteo Rovere, Gabriele Mainetti, and Sydney Sibilia. He has handled the sound design for films such as “La Grande Bellezza”, “Dogman”, “Il primo re”, “Io Capitano”, “È stata la mano di dio”, as well as TV series like “The Young Pope” and “New Pope” produced by HBO. He has received three David di Donatello awards for Best Sound for “Veloce come il Vento,” “Dogman,” and “Il primo Re”.

Stefano Ratchev

He served as the first cello of the youth orchestra at the Arts Academy of Rome and collaborated with various international orchestras. He has worked as a composer for advertising agencies and for short films and documentaries. He has participated in electronic music events and contemporary art as a composer and DJ. He was a member of the group Revhertz (cello and guitar) with whom he released the CD “Buongiorno” (Altipiani/Goodfellas, 2006).

Giulia Tagliavia

Giulia Tagliavia was born in Palermo, where she studied Piano and Composition, graduating with top honors from the Conservatorio “A. Scarlatti”. She is a pianist with the PMCE, the resident ensemble at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. She has composed music for documentary films that have been presented at some of the most important film festivals, including Berlinale, Giornate degli Autori at Venice, Cannes Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Torino Film Festival, IDFA, Biografilm, and Rome Film Festival. She has also composed soundtracks for documentaries aired on RAI, HBO, Arte, France TV, Sky, and, in 2023, for the original Netflix docuseries “Il Principe”. She lives in Rome and teaches Composition at the Conservatorio “N. Sala” in Benevento.

Taketo Gohara

Taketo Gohara is a record producer, arranger, sound engineer, and sound designer. He began a true artistic/production partnership with Vinicio Capossela starting from the album “Ovunque proteggi.” Throughout his career, he has worked as a producer, arranger, and sound engineer with various Italian bands and artists including Vinicio Capossela, Brunori Sas, Elisa, Biagio Antonacci, Davide Van De Sfroos, Dardust, Motta, Vasco Brondi, Giovanni Caccamo, Negramaro, and Verdena. In the cinematic field, he specializes as a sound designer and has been credited with over 30 films as a surround sound mixer. He teaches Sound Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design and the Centro Professione Musica in Milan.

Nicola Tescari

Nicola Tescari earned a double master’s degree in composition and orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory. After four years of studying under the guidance of renowned conductors and composers such as Luciano Berio and György Ligeti, he decided to return to Europe and focus solely on composition. He has collaborated with directors such as Cristina Comencini, an Oscar nominee, Carlos Saura, and Valeria Golino, winners at the Cannes Film Festival. As a pianist, he has accompanied artists like Madonna, Sting, and Rufus Wainwright. In 2012, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his orchestral arrangement of “Moon Over Bourbon Street” for Sting. In addition to composing film scores, Nicola Tescari has also produced and collaborated with various pop artists including Lester Bowie, Raphael Gualazzi, and Caparezza. He conducts biennial courses on film music at the Scuola Holden in Turin.

Max Viale

Max Viale is a musician, composer, video editor, sound designer, and educator specializing in applied music, audiovisual sound, and interactive-multimedia installations. In 1999, he founded Gatto Ciliegia contro Il Grande Freddo, a band that has been active in various discographic productions, live tours, stage music production, and soundtracks. The soundtrack for “Nico 1988” (S. Nicchiarelli, 2018) was nominated for a David di Donatello award. The soundtrack for the film “Miss Marx” (S. Nicchiarelli, 2022) won the David di Donatello, Nastro d’Argento, and Soundtrack Stars Award.

Roberta D’Angelo

Roberta D’Angelo works as a music editor for cinema and TV. She collaborated over the years with various musicians including Pasquale Catalano, Michele Braga, Stefano Bollani, Santi Pulvirenti, Lorenzo Tomio, Mokadelic and Francesco Motta. In 2018-19 she moved to London and worked on international projects including The kid who will be King (2018) by Joe Cornish, with the music of EWB (Damon Albarn and his crew). More recent titles include the film Beckett (2021) with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Challenger (2024), a film by Luca Guadagnino with music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Piernicola Di Muro

Piernicola Di Muro has written the music for various films such as Una Madre, with Micaela Ramazzotti and Aurora Giovinazzo, Il Ritorno, with Emma Marrone, Corro da te, with Pierfrancesco Favino, together with important TV series such as Tutti pazzi per amore, Una Grande Famiglia, È Arrivata la Felicità. In 2016 he founded Wider Studio Music, a music publishing and music production company with which he produces and mixes numerous soundtracks for other composers including Mixed by Erry, The Land of Dreams, L’Ultima notte di Amore, GLORIA!, A Different Man produced by A24.

THE AWARD

The Lago Original Soundtrack Award is dedicated to Federico Savina.

(1935-2023)

 

He began his activity in the field of sound recording and research in the 1960s in Rome. Later, he moved his freelance sound engineer activity to the Davout studios in Paris and CTS Wembley in London, collaborating with some of the best directors and musicians (Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Morricone, Bernstein).

He was a lecturer for over 20 years in Sound Processing at the Experimental Cinematography Center Foundation – National Film School of Rome and collaborated with the Animation Section of Turin for the realization of Diploma works.

He conducted periodic advanced workshops on film music and was responsible for the technical setup and operation of the screening rooms at the Venice Biennale during the Film Festival.

THE CURATORS

Eugenio Migotto

Classically-trained musician, he has been collaborating with LFF since 2018. Since 2022, he has been the co-curator of Lago Original Soundtrack.

Nicola Lunardelli

Musician, composer, and videomaker in the LFF team since 2012. He became the curator of Lago Original Soundtrack in 2018.