Farewell to Maria Roberta Novielli, the Driving Force of the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival

On Monday 20 July, Maria Roberta Novielli, Associate Professor of Cinema, Photography, Radio, Television and Digital Media at Ca' Foscari University's Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, passed away unexpectedly.

Her name is inextricably linked to the conception and artistic direction of the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival, which she founded in 2011. The festival was the first film festival in Europe to be conceived, organised and managed entirely by a university. Under Roberta Novielli’s leadership, it grew into an internationally recognised platform for short films and offered a distinctive educational experience to thousands of students. Recognised for its exceptional cultural significance, the Festival was granted the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic in 2013. More recently, in ANVUR's latest Research Quality Assessment, it earned the highest rating as a public engagement initiative, highlighting its social and cultural impact.

Ca' Foscari Rector Tiziana Lippiello expressed the University's deep sorrow:

"Professor Roberta Novielli's death is a personal loss to me and a profound blow to our entire community. A distinguished scholar of cinema and Japanese culture, she was among the colleagues most deeply committed to what we call the University's third mission. She created the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival, a cultural initiative that established itself internationally as a point of reference for aspiring young filmmakers. Through her 'creation', she gave hundreds of students the opportunity to express their creativity and share their vision with the world. Roberta was admired and respected for her ability to engage students at every stage of organising the Festival, helping them grow both personally and professionally. We will greatly miss her passion and the tireless energy with which she contributed to bringing knowledge and culture into the wider community. On behalf of the entire University, I extend my heartfelt condolences to Roberta Novielli's family."

Professor Novielli's passing has deeply affected her colleagues in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, who remember her through the words of Professor Piermario Vescovo:

"Roberta Novielli was taken from us suddenly on the afternoon of 20 July, in the room next to the one where she had just finished speaking with one of her two beloved daughters. She had an extraordinary ability to move across disciplines, languages and fields of interest, driven by boundless curiosity and exceptional intellectual rigour. Roberta was also a determined fighter. Although her life was marked by difficulties and personal struggles, it was sustained by profound passion, remarkable intelligence and a distinctive lightness of spirit that characterised both her research and her relationships with others.

A graduate in Oriental Languages and Literatures from Ca' Foscari and a specialist in Cinema from Nihon University in Tokyo, she studied and taught the history of cinema and animation. As a member of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, she inspired and encouraged hundreds of Ca' Foscari students. Last year, together with them, she celebrated the fifteenth edition of the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival, for which she served as Artistic and Executive Director. The Festival became a much-anticipated annual event, bringing internationally renowned directors and scholars to Venice while showcasing the expertise and professional talent of the local area. She was also an active member of the University's UNIMED committee and, from 2016 onwards, the founder and Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking.

Among her publications are Storia del cinema giapponese (Marsilio, 2001), the first comprehensive history of Japanese cinema published in Italy and later translated abroad; Metamorfosi – Schegge di violenza nel nuovo cinema giapponese (Epika, 2010); Animerama – Storia del cinema di animazione giapponese (Marsilio, 2015); and Floating Worlds – A Short History of Japanese Animation (CRC Press, 2018).

She leaves a void that extends far beyond academia. As a member of the Film Classification Commission at the Directorate-General for Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Culture, she was a valued figure for many festivals—including the Venice International Film Festival, the Tokyo Student Film Festival and the Locarno Film Festival—as well as for numerous cultural events and institutions, thanks to her enthusiasm and expertise.

She also accomplished a great deal in Venice, the city where she lived and worked, by fostering dialogue, building networks, initiating collaborative projects, and creating knowledge spaces that will leave a lasting legacy. Among her many contributions were her work with the Veneto Film Commission Foundation's Evaluation Committee, project development with M9, evenings and symposia organised with Circuito Cinema, and, above all, immersiVenice, created to 'connect content, people and immersive media' starting from Venice itself. The project was presented last month at an event attended by a large audience of institutions, scholars and professionals. It represented a truly immersive space, embodying both the synthesis of and the legacy of her tireless work for young people: a constant commitment to creating opportunities, spaces for dialogue and genuine possibilities for growth. Her work was never self-serving but always aimed at opening new paths for future generations. This is the legacy that will live on in many of us, through the profound mark Roberta has left behind."

A testament to the long journey of the Short Film Festival is the publication, on 30 June, by Edizioni Ca' Foscari of the volume she edited, Young Cinema: The Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival between Education, Research and Vision (Il cinema giovane. Il Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival tra formazione, ricerca e visione, openly accessible at https://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/979-12-5742-050-5/).

Edizioni Ca' Foscari also paid tribute to her memory: "We recently had the privilege of working with Maria Roberta on the publication of this volume, a project that meant a great deal to her and was among the last she completed. We witnessed first-hand the depth of her connection with the Festival, with everything it represented for Ca' Foscari, and, above all, with the generations of students who took part in it. She retained an extraordinarily vivid memory of all fifteen editions, of the people involved, the encounters, the films, and the moments that shaped its history. We learned a great deal from her, not only through the depth of her commitment to knowledge, scholarship, and teaching, but also through the passion with which she transformed them into shared experiences."