Let\u2019s talk about young European cinema, yes \u2013 but first, let\u2019s set what the average age is to be considered a young European filmmaker. In Italy, if we take the David di Donatello award for Best Directorial Debut as a reference, this year it was deservedly won by Margherita Vicario, who is 37. \u201cGloria!\u201d is a passionate and timeless debut, ageless in essence, but the age of its author seems to be about average, I\u2019d say, for Italian first-time directors.<\/p>\n
In Europe, where there are stronger protections for young filmmakers (young how young? \u2013 I\u2019ll get to that), especially in some countries with more supportive film industries, people might debut slightly earlier, but not by much \u2013 at least if we use local film awards as a benchmark. Here are some of the main ones.<\/p>\n
France: the C\u00e9sar for Best First Film this year went to the lovely \u201cVingt dieux\u201d (released in Italy in late June as \u201cTutto in un\u2019estate!\u201d \u2013 yes, with an exclamation point, even though it\u2019s a bittersweet coming-of-age story). Its talented director, Louise Courvoisier, is 31. Spain: the 2025 Goya for Best Debut went to Javier Macipe Costa, age 37, for \u201cLa estrella azul\u201d, which has yet to be released in Italy. And then there\u2019s the European Film Award (EFA), which is meant to represent the entire continent. Last December, the award for Best Debut \u2013 called \u201crevelation\u201d in that context \u2013 went to the intriguing \u201cArmand\u201d, which was also released in Italian cinemas. It was directed by Halfdan Ullmann T\u00f8ndel, who happens to be the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann. He\u2019s 35.<\/p>\n
So, this isn\u2019t exactly a continent for the young \u2013 or at least not for the very young. So where do the new voices come from, where do we find them? I\u2019ll pick one, and go back to Spain, a country rich in fresh perspectives, female directors, and new gazes \u2013 in both writing and directing. Leaving aside Pedro (a national and global treasure), my personal favorite \u2013 and arguably the best currently active \u2013 is Rodrigo Sorogoyen, with a stunning filmography that spans both cinema (\u201cGod Save Us\u201d, \u201cThe Realm\u201d, \u201cMother\u201d, and especially \u201cThe Beasts\u201d) and TV series (\u201cAntidisturbios \u2013 Riot Police\u201d, and the recent \u201cThe New Years\u201d). He makes proudly popular entertainment that still weaves in politics, economics, and the cultural and social differences that are both Europe\u2019s joy and, more than ever, its burden (take the clash between native Spaniards and eco-conscious French newcomers in The Beasts\u2019 Galician countryside\u2014it\u2019s practically a thesis that should be studied by Brussels committees). But Sorogoyen is 43, so he\u2019s outside the scope of our discussion.<\/p>\n
Another prodigious Spanish filmmaker is Carla Sim\u00f3n, now 38, but she debuted at age 30, so I\u2019m choosing her \u2013 retroactively. Her first film, \u201cSummer 1993\u201d, released in 2017, is a story of childhood, family, place, and memory. A beautiful, small film that signaled a new voice. With \u201cAlcarr\u00e0s\u201d (2022), she won the Golden Bear in Berlin \u2013 something that usually doesn\u2019t happen to young directors (she was 36 at the time).<\/p>\n
She reminds one of Sorogoyen for her focus on agriculture and its decline, on class difference \u2013 but while he focuses on society, she keeps the family at the center (or perhaps treats the family as a stand-in for society as a whole). \u201cAlcarr\u00e0s\u201d is a great film with Catalan roots but a communal spirit \u2013 if we\u2019re to draw a link with European identity and belonging. Her third film, \u201cRomer\u00eda\u201d, was in competition this year at Cannes: another story set on the margins, of both place and people. A young woman returns to her provincial hometown to investigate the death of her father from AIDS when she was a child. Seek out her films.<\/p>\n
I choose Spain because, among the many films and countries I encounter (and they are truly many), it seems to me the national cinema with the strongest sense of community. It feels compelled to tell its stories within History, and wherever possible, to frame them in the broader tableau of the world\u2019s many provinces \u2013 each with its own stories, all different and all the same. Europe, after all, has now become a province of global cinema, a micro-macro industry made of a thousand smaller industries. And its only response to the mainstream is its art \u2013 or rather, its craftsmanship, without any rhetoric \u2013 like that of Sim\u00f3n\u2019s farmers.<\/p>\n
I interview many directors, including young ones, but never quite young enough to make me say: everything has changed, cinema has awakened, and it knows it must start from scratch. And in the end, those who best tell the story of Europe \u2013 and its ever-possible, ever-thwarted spirit of community \u2013 are still the old masters. One film comes to mind, magnificent and from quite a few years ago now, in 2003: \u201cA Talking Picture\u201d by Manoel de Oliveira, then 95 (!) years old, and forever the youngest of them all. On a cruise ship, several passengers gather around a table: Catherine Deneuve speaks in French, Stefania Sandrelli in Italian, Irene Papas in Greek, the captain \u2013 John Malkovich \u2013 in English. Everyone understands each other. Including the Portuguese director, who directed them in all those different languages.<\/p>\n
I interview many directors, including young ones \u2013 and about a year ago, I met one who seemed noticeably younger than the rest. The film was \u201cToni, en famille\u201d (released in Italy as \u201cRicomincio da me\u201d), and I was talking with lead actress Camille Cottin, the radiant Andrea from \u201cCall My Agent!\u201d, and the director, Nathan Ambrosioni. He struck me as especially young, and indeed, he was just 25 at the time. A 25-year-old directing a film about a woman in her 40s, a former pop hopeful who gave up her career to raise five children on her own. Now that the kids are grown, what will she do \u201cas an adult\u201d? The fact that such a question comes from someone so young, about a woman much older than him, is telling: beautiful things can still happen in Europe \u2013 and in European cinema. And then you think: sure, but it\u2019s easier in France. Cinema is more supported, and so are young auteurs. And watching the great films made elsewhere, you come back to being a localist \u2013 and maybe, in that sense, truly European.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let\u2019s talk about young European cinema, yes \u2013 but first, let\u2019s set what the average age is to be considered a young European filmmaker. In Italy, if we take the David di Donatello award for Best Directorial Debut as a reference, this year it was deservedly won by Margherita Vicario, who is 37. \u201cGloria!\u201d is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":28,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4673"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4929,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673\/revisions\/4929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}