MARINO GUARNIERI

Director, animator, illustrator.
After working as a graphic designer, through all forms of expression and communication in the last 20 years, in the end he discovers his true love: the animation.
He conceives, designs and participates in the creation of commercials and music videos, television themes and educational products, documentaries, specials and feature films.
Assistant director, head of 2D and editor of the animated feature film The Art of Happiness (L'arte della Felicità), produced by Mad Entertainment and winner of the European Film Awards in 2014 for Best European animated film.
He is Professor of Digital Entertainment at the Italian School of Comix, for which he directed the commercial Chi sogna disegna and the short film Midnight Signs.
He directed his first animation feature film Gatta Cenerentola, alongside Ivan Cappiello, Alessandro Rak and Dario Sansone. The movie is produced by Mad Entertainment in collaboration with Rai Cinema and distributed by Videa, has been selected to compete in the Orizzonti category at 74th edition of the Venice International Film Festival.
He is also a board member for ASIFA Italia (International Association for Animated Films).

STATEMENTS

Every artist will appreciate how difficult it is to master the tools of self expression in order to convey what goes through his or her head; a blurry image which only begins to sharpen once it is set on paper, and consequently shared. This is the story of how we must sometimes struggle against the very tools that are supposed to let us express ourselves, battling against them until they finally bend to our will and come to our aid, rather than acting as an obstacle.

The initial concept for the film was inspired by the very nature of the task at hand, since the short was put together by the Digital Animation students of the Italian School of Comix, Naples. Similarly to the story's hero, they too have had to learn how to "tame" pencils, paper and peg bars, not to mention graphic pads and computer programs, in order to complete their formation and launch their career with this first experience of professional group work.

I like to define it an "educational short" in that it was the animators' first real experience of creating a movie. Likewise, the background was created by professional animators who were curious to experiment with the digital painting of the scenes, thus providing a new learning experience for them too.

SCREENSHOTS and SKETCHES

All images are downloadables as JPG files 1920x1080 resolution, good for web and print on small catalogues.
For more images you can download the electronic press-kit.





OFFICIAL SELECTIONS and SCREENINGS

Midnight Signs was nominated to many awards and prizes, and screened in a lot of festivals in Italy and international movies exhibitions.
It's also present in many media libraries like Annecy and Italian Shot Film Center.

CONTATTACI

More information about the project?
You can join us on our facebook page or you can write us a message!