New Delhi: Vatican City is ready to race for the Academy Awards for the first time in the 97 years of its history. Green Lava, an inspirational Vatican-produced documentary, is its official submission.
The 39-minute documentary revolves around a young Italian man named Giacomo Mattivi, who is suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, set in the Dolomites in northern Italy, where Mattivi’s relationship with his community becomes the central plot of the story.
The documentary will premiere this week in Los Angeles as a preamble to being submitted for the Oscars in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
The documentary is directed by Lia Beltrami and Ali Aksum. The film’s synopsis reads, “Defying societal expectations, Giacomo challenges the limitations imposed by his condition and finds strength in his community and in the natural world that surrounds him.”
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Green Lava for the Oscars
Paolo Ruffini, who heads the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, which is the office that controls the Vatican’s television, shared that the documentary is a story that is a celebration of life and friendship. It teaches the richness that the lives of people marked by illness can bear witness to and offer, as well as the vitality they can bring to the relationships around them.
“Giacomo’s story deserves to be known by everyone, and that is why we are delighted about the opportunity to include ‘Green Lava’ in the Oscar submission process,” said Paolo Ruffini in a statement to Variety.
The documentary will screen from 18 September to 24 September at the Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills. But the film will not specifically represent the Vatican in the race. Unlike the International Feature Film category, short films do not need an official submission or endorsement from a national government or a country’s specific committee.
For the 99th Academy Awards, the Academy’s Documentary Feature Film rules cover films running more than 40 minutes; Green Lava, at 39 minutes, is instead entering the documentary short category.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)