After graduating from the DAMS, University of Bologna, she started her career in the world of photojournalism and realized many services for daily and weekly newspapers; she then became assistant operator in various film productions.
In 1985 she directed, together with Giorgio Magliulo, her first feature film “A house in the balance ” which won the Nastro d’Argento as best first work and in 1990 she made “Matilda”, again in collaboration with Giorgio Magliulo, her second work.
In the 1990s she directed several documentaries and video portraits including: “Angelo Novi photographer scene”, “The American night of Dr. Lucio Fulci”, “Every chair has its own noise”, “Betrothed”, selected and awarded in several international festivals.
In 1995 she directed “Vittoria’s tales” with which she won the Prize of the Film Critics’ Union at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival.
In 2004 she directed “The rest of nothing”, a special event at the Venice International Film Festival and winner of numerous awards, including three nominations for David di Donatello, the Flaiano Prize for best screenplay and five nominations for the Nastri d’Argento.
In 2007 she founded Marechiarofilm, her own production and distribution company with which she consolidated her previous career with Angio Film and Megaris. Thanks to this project, in 2011 she signed as creator and curator her first participated film in Italy “The Christmas Lunch”, presented at the 6th International Film Festival of Rome. In 2013 she made “The Next Door Crazy Woman” presented at the 31st Torino Film Festival on the history of poet Alda Merini.
In 2015 she presented her second participated film “Today together, tomorrow too” at the 33rd Torino Film Festival, when she was awarded the Silver Ribbon 2016 for her journey in the cinema of the real.
In 2017 she presented the medium-length film “Il signor Rotpeter” in official selection at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, thanks to which the director was awarded a special award at the 2018 Silver Ribbon.
In 2021 De Lillo staged the photographic exhibition “Ritratti di Cinema” consisting of images taken during the Venice festival of 1981 and 1982.
In November of the same year, another photographic exhibition entitled “19:34 Photos of Antonietta De Lillo” was set up, with shots that witness the period following the earthquake in Irpinia in 1980.
In 2023 she was engaged in the making of her self-portrait film “The eye of the hen” which will be released in 2024.
Currently, the third film “The man and the beast” is underway and will be concluded in 2025.
IL SIGNOR ROTPETER
The opera that the director has decided to screen at the2024 edition of the Short Film Festival is Mr Rotpeter, based on the 1917 story by Franz Kafka “A Report on an Academy”. The narration unfolds along two parallel timelines. On one hand, we follow the university lesson that Mr Rotpeter – creature halfway between a monkey and a human being – is holding at University, on the other we witness his daily routine that makes the audience reflect on many of the instances a person has to face every day, often without realizing it. it.
The background to the story is the city of Naples that becomes the place where reality is staged and that, with its more or less pervasive presence, contributes to bringing the viewer to this seemingly distant creature, but actually much closer than you might think. Through his eyes we are placed in the position of continually questioning ourselves on the choices we make and on great themes of humanity, such as freedom and the possibility of escaping from the cage in which the reality of our contemporary life is sometimes locked.
De Lillo’s is a cinema that invites the spectator to deconstruct stereotypes, guided by the characters and their multiple visions. Following the stages of this immersive metamorphosis, it is as if we knew our society for the first time, empathically identifying ourselves with Mr Rotpeter’s gaze and the dynamics of his relationships with the world around him.
