Matteo Garrone collected the first US award for I, Capitano.
The film, which will compete for the Oscar for best international film on March 10, was awarded the best international title by the Afro American Film Critics association, the association of film critics belonging to the black community.
"I am particularly happy with this award - the director, who has been in Los Angeles for about ten days for a series of meetings and screenings, told ANSA -. It shows that the film has been understood by the African-American community. Ultimately, I one could object: 'But how dare you, a white Italian, tell this story? I could have been misunderstood, accused of appropriating a human and historical story that is not mine.
That African-American critics themselves decided to reward this epic about slavery contemporary means that they perceived that I put myself at the service of history, that I am an intermediary".
The award contributes to raising awareness of the film at a crucial moment, because the work debuts in American cinemas in two days (preceded by enthusiastic reviews and a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and because the members of the Academy begin today February 22nd to vote to decide the winners of the 96th Night of the Stars.
"I realized that it is a film that surprises here. Not everyone is aware of the extent of the drama that is being experienced between Africa and Italy: we are talking about 30 thousand deaths in 10 years. Then they are struck by the intensity and purity of the "interpretation of the actors", considers Garrone before entering the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where the evening was celebrated.
Together with him, as in this entire Hollywood tour, there were the protagonists Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall and Mamadou Kouassi, the young man whose experience inspired the film and who lives in Caserta and is, among other things, a cultural mediator .
After a brief thank you to the audience, the Roman director left them in front of the microphone.
"This award is more theirs than mine, I just lent my voice to those who otherwise don't have it."
The other films awarded were Origin by Ava DuVernay, in the drama category;
American Fiction by Cord Jefferson won among comedies and among musicals The Color Purple by Blitz Bazawule.
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