Young filmmaker from Vizag makes it big at ‘Cinemadamare’ in Italy

Sagi Sree Hari Varma, a young filmmaker from Visakhapatnam, has bagged seven awards at the ‘Cinemadamare’, billed as the biggest gathering of young filmmakers from across the world, held in Italy from July 1 to 27. Mr. Varma was the only filmmaker from India to participate in the festival.

In all, around 60 young filmmakers from across the globe participated in the festival. The participants had to tour four regions in Italy in four weeks and make four short films.

At the end of the week, the films were screened for the public, filmmakers and local political representatives as part of a competition. The best entries, selected by the jury, would be used by the Italian government to promote the places of tourist interest or other aspects of Italy.

“I had written, directed and produced four short films during the festival. At the end of each week, all participants screened the films for the audience. All four of my films won awards, with ‘Signal’ grabbing the limelight by sweeping four awards in the competition,” Mr. Varma told The Hindu.

“The success of ‘Signal’ gave me a lot of confidence in making a full-length feature film on the same topic, which was on my mind for the past several months. I took out a scene from the script of the longer version of ‘Signal’, and made a short film. I was thrilled by the appreciation from audiences and critics, apart from being the ‘most awarded’ short film of the programme. I am in touch with producers. I am confident that after seeing the trailer (short film), they will be impressed with the subject,” Mr. Varma said.

He expressed his gratitude to his family, friends and mentors for their support. His father S.V.S.N. Raju is an Executive Engineer in Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA) and mother Anuradha, a homemaker.

Earlier, Mr. Varma had directed short films and commercials for the FIFA World Cup, the United Nations, and a fictional short film, ‘The Fool’, shot at Warner Bros Studios. He had studied filmmaking at USC Cinematic Arts, California and the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, Russia.