Italian-born Martina Amati is the co-writer and director of Chalk, which this year received a BAFTA nomination in the Short Film category. She has also written and directed the short films Liquidman, A’Mare, I Do Air (for which she won a BAFTA) and Submission, as well as the documentary Altitude.
What training have you received?
Cowboy Films have guided me ever since I made my first short drama, A’Mare, which I shot it without a conventional script. After A’Mare I won two awards to make two more shorts. I made I Do Air through Digital Shorts, in association with Film London and the UK Film Council, and Chalk through Cinema Extreme, in association with Film 4 and the UK Film Council. Skillset were behind both schemes, offering workshops with actors, lectures from experts and one-to-one script developing meetings.
What kinds of projects attract you?
I just fall in love with stories and want to tell them.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a director?
Nina Angeleri, producer of A’Mare, told me, “If in doubt, there is only one person you must trust and that is you.”
Tell us the most significant moment in your career so far
I guess winning the BAFTA for I Do Air and getting a second BAFTA nomination for Chalk are my career highlights. I am also proud of having filmed A’Mare in Sicily featuring local fishermen and taking the film to Sundance, on the other side of the ocean.
You’ll die happy when…
I want to make a movie called Arzimante. It is a fairytale my father used to tell my sister and me when we were little. Telling this story to children around the world will make me super happy.
Supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund, as part of A Bigger Future 2 (www.abiggerfuture2.co.uk)
