A new recognition for RUFA cinema: “Essere Presente Scomparendo”, a short film written and directed by Mino Capuano, RUFA Cinema graduate, has been selected by Alice nella Città in the Academy section, the space dedicated to works created by film schools. The film will be presented in Rome during the festival, scheduled from October 15 to 26, 2025. The project was developed within the educational workshop linked to the Grand Tour Afam. Festival Fellini – led by Mino Capuano – which involved RUFA Cinema students not only in the technical crew but also in the artistic cast. A collective experience that turned the training process into a true creative journey, able to engage with the professional language of cinema.
Essere Presente Scomparendo
Produced by RUFA and Threeab, the short film (25 minutes, dramatic/coming-of-age) tells the story of a group of students working on their graduation film. Amid doubts and difficulties, completing the shoot seems impossible—until, almost as a game, they summon the ghost of Federico Fellini. Through a hybrid and fluid language, Capuano builds a narrative that shifts between fiction and reality, capable of transforming mistakes, detours, and hesitations into fertile ground for authenticity. *Essere Presente Scomparendo* thus becomes a hymn to the grace of the unfinished and to the desire to disappear in order to rediscover oneself, to become invisible in order to observe and feel free, offering the audience an experience that blends life and cinema, fragility and friendship, melancholy and growth.
“This film was born from the desire to tell life precisely in the moment it slips away from us, when everything seems to go wrong. The challenge is to let speak what cannot be explained: what reveals itself in details, in detours, in mistakes. It speaks of ghosts, but not the kind you can see: they are invisible, like certain emotions that find no voice. The ghost exists off-screen, like fears and desires that inhabit us and guide us.”
With these words, Mino Capuano conveys the essence of his project, which through the language of meta-cinema brings to the screen friendship, fragility, and the growth journey of its protagonists. The short film was developed within the *Grand Tour Afam. Festival Fellini* project, supported by Next Generation EU and coordinated by RUFA under the artistic direction of Raffaele Simongini. The initiative invites students to rediscover Fellini’s genius as a source of inspiration for new generations raised in the digital age, between social media and artificial intelligence, experimenting with innovative languages and technologies to evoke Fellini’s atmospheres or reinterpret them in a contemporary key.
Essere Presente Scomparendo – Official Trailer
The director – Mino Capuano
Marcianise, born in 1994, Mino Capuano graduated in Cinema at RUFA and has collaborated with the D’Innocenzo Brothers, Claudio Giovannesi, and Antonietta De Lillo. In 2021, he presented his debut work Quanno Chiove at the “Bimbi Belli” showcase curated by Nanni Moretti. In 2023, he took part with Sciaraballa in the international selection of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and in the same year he returned to Alice nella Città with A Mosca Cieca.
Congratulations to the entire RUFA crew involved
General organization: Flaminia Gentili
Cinematography: Alain Parroni
Editing: Giulia Floria Andorka
Original music: Paolo Brignoli
Assistant director: Flavio Germani
Production manager: Carlotta Venturini
Production sound: Marco Luisetto
Sound editing: Alberto Moscone
Re-recording mixer: Eugenio Bonemazzi
Production design: Andrea Pediconi
Costumes: Caterina Cingolani
1st Assistant director: Serena Lazzaro
2nd Assistant director: Greta Catogno
Script supervisor: Riccardo Marino
Production supervisor: Anna Matilde Lamberti
Assistant production secretary: Jacopo De Rossi
Camera assistant: Sara Tavernini
Assistant camera operator: Gian Maria Vecchies
Data manager: Dario Ciccarelli
Drone operator: Alessandro Grignani
Boom operator: Eva Centamore
Make-up artist: Giulia Maria Torre
Mixing studio: BNC Studio
Graphics: Search Fields Studio
Colorist: Alessio Zanardi
Actors: Rachele Verzilli, Flavio Germani, Tullia Majorana, Sofia Trentini, Daniele Speranza, Danilo Merafina, Joy Renè Abela, Riccardo Marino, Greta Catogno, Serena Lazzaro, Dario Ciccarelli, Gian Maria Vecchies, Andrea Pediconi, Carlotta Venturini, Anna Matilde Lamberti, Jacopo De Rossi, Giulia Maria Torre.
