Luca, the Pixar film set in Liguria from Enrico Casarosa, director of Genovese origin, is one of the five finalists for this year’s Best Animated Film Oscar.
The film pays tribute to the friendships that change lives and summer childhoods of discovery. Set between the Fifties and Sixties, it follows the adventures of Luca Paguro and Alberto Scorfano, adolescent sea creatures who, tired of their parents’ rules, decide to break through the surface of their water home to explore dry land and its inhabitants. Once they have assumed human form, they discover that it is a wonderful world, perfumed with the scent of trenette al pesto, with the taste of mozzarella and ice creams, busy with colourful Vespas and full of significant moments like encounters with their fiery peer Giulia and the bullies who threaten them, “scared” of their difference. Fish out of water, they are different and they quickly come to realise that, facing up to their fears and fragility.
Set in fictional Portorosso, a picturesque village in Liguria that is a combination of Portovenere and Monterosso, the film is a homage to Italy, to her light, to that coastline pressed between the sea and the mountains in the Cinque Terre, to her food, the pop hits of 60 years ago and the films of the boom years: it’s not hard to spot references to masterpieces like Bicycle Thieves, Roman Holiday, The Earth Shakes, Big Deal on Madonna Street on the streets of Portorosso.
Casarosa, whose debut film La Luna was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2011, said he was honoured to be nominated and tweeted his thanks to the team that worked so hard to make Luca in these difficult times. He also congratulated the other nominees, highlighting the challenges of making films in 2021 with the ongoing pandemic, and acknowledged many peers for their excellent films.
The Oscar ceremony when the winners will be revealed will take place on 27 March.
Read about the places in Luca.
(Monica Sardelli)