2022 Foiling Week on Lake Garda - Foiling Film Festival, first edition winners announced

Foiling Film Festival, first edition, the winners © Martina Orsini / Foiling Week

The Foiling Film Festival has found its winners. Last night, in the 14th-century Palazzo dei Capitani in Malcesine, the awards ceremony of the first edition of the world festival entirely dedicated to the cinematography of "flying boats" took place.

• To "Gone With the Wing" by Andrew Englisch, Australia (2022), the award for best foiling film of 2022
• "Flyingnikka - The Making Of..." premieres out of competition at the FFF - the words of owner and skipper Roberto Lacorte
• Foiling Youth World Series - Foiling Week talks about it tomorrow at 09:15 live web with World Sailing, China Sports Industry Group and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

It was a very important moment for Beatrice Colombo Serri, curator of the event, who commented at the end: "As a first edition it was a real success and huge satisfaction. I am convinced that with this review the interest and desire were born in many directors and producers, to create more and more video and documentary content to tell the fantastic world of foil. For the next editions, I expect many more participants. We have plans for more events and appearances to run these wonderful short and long metrics collected."

The award for best foiling film of the year went to the medium-length film "GONE WITH THE WING" by Andrew Englisch, Australia (2022), who was in the audience with his family. It retraces Englisch's own first world attempt to cross by Wingfoil, the treacherous Bass Strait (between Australia and Tasmania). An ordeal that helped him recover at a very difficult time.

"Coming from Australia to the world's first Foiling Film Festival is such an honor and something I could never have imagined. To win the award for best film is astounding because I only started foiling 12 months ago, I'm 55 years old and I want to tell everyone that foiling is amazing, it's an attraction for all ages, it has changed my life and I hope it will change the lives of so many others."

Best Series 2022 is "CHALLENGER FOR NOW" an 8-episode production by America's Cup team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, represented for the occasion here on Lake Garda by Stefano Baruffaldi, the drone-man and design team member involved in the filming of the film. "It is thanks to this experience that my collaboration with Luna Rossa began. It was a real turning point. I will remember it for the rest of my life from a human and professional point of view."

The prize for best short film was awarded to "VENT" by Pietro M. Bressan, Italy. It is an intimate tale between Olympic champion Ruggero Tita and the wind, or rather the winds of Garda, seen as magical presences that accompany the sailor in his training discipline.FOILING WEEK™ is the first and only global event dedicated to the amazing foiling boats, their sailors, designers and manufacturers.

The award for best story goes to "LINKED OUT - VENDÈE GLOBE" by Thomas Sametin, which presents the genesis, difficulties and satisfactions of French skipper Thomas Ruyant in building his boat with Vendèe Globe 2020 as a goal.

To "RRD A FOILING TRIP IN SOUTH AFRICA" by Stefano Ricci went the prize for best editing. A road-movie set in South Africa that uses compelling, adrenaline-pumping images to chronicle the evolutions of Ricci and his Wingfoil. "We weren't realizing the fact that we were making memories, we were just having fun," the star commented on the occasion.

The allure of the world's biggest waves ridden on a foil board. These were the main ingredients for the best cinematography award that went to "LIFT FOILS_LAIRD AT NAZARÉ" by Patrick Weiland, USA.

As best film set on Lake Garda, presented to the winners by Livio Concini Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Malcesine, partner of the first edition of the Foiling Film Festival, was awarded "Enduring Garda" by Lamberto Cesari and Luca Carton. A work capable of conveying the emotions and beauty of this magical stretch of water by sailing from north to south aboard a Nacra 17 and then returning by land racing over the mountains on the Veneto side of the lake.

The Festival was inaugurated by the out-of-competition "premiere" of "FlyingNikka - The making of...," by Roman director Pierpaolo Lanfrancotti, which traces the genesis of the first mini-maxi foiler for offshore racing by Italian owner and skipper Roberto Lacorte, who said on the festival stage, "The evening was really engaging, the ideal context for the presentation of the film on FlyingNikka. I would like to thank Luca Rizzotti and the Foiling Week organization for giving us this opportunity. I also extend my congratulations to them for putting on an event that is unquestionably the absolute benchmark of the foiling context internationally."

Foiling Film Festival, first edition, the winners - photo © Martina Orsini / Foiling Week