International Award for the Best Short Film
The Prize is addressed to filmmakers of all nationalities and not older than 30 on the date of the submission deadline. For joint submissions, all participants must meet the age limitation. The maximum length of each entry (fiction, documentary or animation) must not exceed 15 minutes. All entries must have been produced in 2024 or 2025.
A special mention will also be assigned to the most significant film dedicated to the theme chosen by the municipal administration: HUMILITY, with its echoes from the Gospels and Dostoevsky, stands in stark contrast to the social obsession with profit, domination, and widespread selfishness. Humility carries within it a deep sense of justice and care for others, for the environment, for work. It also means embracing complexity, accepting that we are part of something greater than ourselves. It means not being masters, but seekers of meaning. The mention winner will be awarded a cash prize worth €300 offered by FIC – Federazione Italiana Cineforum.
The Ermanno Olmi Prize jury is composed as follows: 2 members appointed by the City of Bergamo, through the culture councillor, 1 member appointed by the Olmi family, 1 member appointed by Cineforum, 1 member appointed by Lab 80 Film. The award ceremony for the Prize finalists will take place December 2nd, 2025 at Sala dell’Orologio – CULT!, Piazza della Libertà, Bergamo.
The competition awards the following:
Ermanno Olmi Award – 1st Prize: € 1200
Ermanno Olmi Award – 2nd Prize: € 600
Ermanno Olmi Award – 3rd Prize: € 400
Application
Participation fee — € 5
Deadline — October 12th, 2025
News
Winners – VII Edition
First Prize
El pütì pèrs
Paolo Baiguera
A humble and intimate story that takes us back to a suspended, almost remote time. A time when man lived in close contact with nature and his creations were born from research around his own nest. An ancestral microcosm that does not demand explanations or aspire to reconciliation, but seeks to give meaning to what seems meaningless. A cultural heritage preserved in a language spoken by few and hidden in the hands of even fewer. A profound story that transforms into a stream of consciousness and materialises in an artefact, restoring the remote idea of the workshop and craftsmanship as a relationship with the mystery of the world around us.
Second Prize
Voiceover
Leonardo Ferro
With its delicacy and humanity, it shows us how cinema can become a form of freedom even within prison walls. Hamza is an example of a simple man who has made mistakes in life and wants nothing more than to be happy: a film that, through its original rhythm, allows us to listen to the reflections and understand the feelings of those marginalised by society, inviting us to reflect and move us.
Third Prize
Two Ships
McKinley Benson
The film uses admirable narrative interweaving to portray two lives that coexist in parallel and separate ways, albeit under the same roof. Light and shadow vie for representation of their lives, evoked with great effectiveness in a manner that is both realistic and poetic.
Special Mention
Alien Minds
Florian Rudolph
The film invites us to shift our gaze to a world we thought was merely mechanism, reflection, soulless movement. With a staging that evokes painting and lighting that sculpts the smallest details, it suggests that humility also resides in a gesture: that of bending down, observing, listening, in order to recognise the value of a life whose sensitive existence we were unaware of and to rethink our place in the world, no longer at the top, but among all forms of life.
Press area
Press office — Ada Tullo
adatullo33@gmail.com / press@bergamofilmmeeting.it
Tel. +39 349 2674900
2023 – 5th Edition
Have a look at the Press review
Press Release – The Winners Premio Ermanno Olmi 2023 (.pdf)
Press Release – The Winners Premio Ermanno Olmi 2023 (.doc)
Press Release – The Finalists Ermanno Olmi Award 2023 (.pdf)
Press Release – The Finalists Olmi Award 2023 (.doc)
Images – The finalists (.jpg)
Images – Homage to Ermanno Olmi (.jpg)
2022 – 4th Edition
Have a look at the Press review
Press Release – The Winners Premio Ermanno Olmi 2022 (.pdf)
Press Release – The Winners Premio Ermanno Olmi 2022 (.doc)
Press Release – The Award Ceremony Premio Ermanno Olmi 2022 (.pdf)
Press Release – The Award Ceremony Premio Ermanno Olmi 2022 (.doc)
Photos – The Finalists (.jpg)
Photos – La Cotta (.jpg)
2021 – 3rd edition
Have a look at the Press review
Press Release — The Winners 2021 (.pdf)
Press Release — The Winners 2021 (.doc)
Press Release — The finalists of E. Olmi Award Third Edition (.pdf)
Press Release — The finalists of E. Olmi Award Third Edition (.doc)
Photos — Il tempo si è fermato (.zip)
Photos — The Finalists (.zip)
Press Release — The Jury of Ermanno Olmi Award Third Edition (.pdf)
Press Release — The Jury of Ermanno Olmi Award Third Edition (.doc)
Press Release — Third Edition E. Olmi Award (.pdf)
Press Release — Third Edition E. Olmi Award (.doc)
Official Image (.zip)
2020 – 2nd edition
Have a look at the Press review
Press Release — The Winners 2020 (.pdf)
Press Release — The Winners 2020 (.doc)
Press Release — The finalists of E. Olmi Award Second Edition (.pdf)
Press Release — The finalists of E. Olmi Award Second Edition (.doc)
Photos — Torneranno i prati (.zip)
Photos — The Finalists (.zip)
Press Release — The Jury of Ermanno Olmi Award Second Edition (.pdf)
Press Release — The Jury of Ermanno Olmi Award Second Edition (.doc)
Press Release — Second Edition Ermanno Olmi Award (.pdf)
Press Release — Second Edition Ermanno Olmi Award (.doc)
Official Image (.zip)
2019 – 1st edition
Have a look at the Press review
