Forum Guest Country: Italy

Interno Zero

Fiction
Director: Anita Contini
Producer: Laura Catalano
Production Company: 8 Production Srl
Estimated Duration: 20 Minutes
Current Stage Of Development: In Development

Synopsis:
For the past few months, Eva has been struggling with a profound loss: Pietro is gone.
She finds refuge only in her home, surrounded by silence and all that remains. There, she relies on her own private ways of coping, risking the loss of herself in the process.
Alice, the housekeeper, is a quiet witness. As she tidies Eva's belongings and Pietro's lingering traces, she pieces together the most difficult stages of grief, those that cannot be put into words.

Director’s Biography:
She is a self-taught filmmaker and producer. Her first major milestone came in 2022 with the self-publication of Medea Is Dead: New Monologues for 21st-Century Casting, which entered the Top 10 best-selling titles for one week from its first day of publication. That same year, she wrote and directed her first self-produced short film, Again. Alongside her work in production and collaborations with film festivals—which have given her a deeper understanding of the industry, the audiovisual production process, and the dynamics of collaboration across departments—she has continued to develop her own projects, directing Comunque Resta and Rosso Fuori, the latter winning the FashionQuick Corto-Lab award. She subsequently expanded into writing and directing commercial work, overseeing the creative direction for PlanBuy. In 2023, she directed Quasi Otto, selected for Piemonte Factory, followed by Otto, whose world premiere took place in the dedicated section of the Torino Film Festival. In 2024, the screenplay for Interno Zero received an award at the Linea d'Ombra Festival. Since then, she has been developing her original projects with editor Paolo Carbone. For Mediterraneo Cinematografica, she serves as Script Editor on La Gruta del Viento, a fiction feature film directed by Eduardo Crespo.

In 2025, her feature film project Bajo el Agua was selected for the Saturnia Pitch from a pool of more than 200 submissions. Her body of original work also includes poetry, short fiction, monologues, and performance art projects.

Producer’s Biography:
Laura Catalano is a film and audiovisual producer, as well as the founder and CEO of 8 Production. She oversees the company's editorial vision and personally supervises the development and production of each project from its earliest stages of conception. Her academic background spans several disciplines, including a degree in Arts and Performing Arts Studies from Sapienza University of Rome, specialized training in screenwriting through Tracce, a Master's degree in Art & Culture Management from Rome Business School, and executive training in film management and finance at the Civica School of Cinema in Milan. This multidisciplinary education is reflected in 8 Production's approach, which combines organizational rigor, market awareness, and artistic sensitivity. On the institutional side, Laura Catalano serves on the Executive Board of CNA Cinema e Audiovisivo Roma, where she contributes to discussions on industry policy, with a particular focus on tax credit mechanisms and the regulatory framework governing independent film production. She has also been a member of AGICI (Italian Association of Independent Film Producers) since 2016. As a producer, she has built a strong network of collaborations with emerging filmmakers and established directors, as well as with national film commissions, public cultural institutions, and Italian and European production partners. Among the projects she has personally overseen are La ragazza di Praga (shortlisted for the 2025 David di Donatello Awards and distributed on MUBI), Via Don Minzoni n.6 (the company's first feature film, released theatrically and on major SVOD platforms), City of Owls (selected for the Semaine de la Critique at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival), and Raffaella 2000 (developed through Biennale College Cinema Venezia 2022, an Italy–Albania co-production supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture).