YOUNG ARTIST GRANT

Carlo Coen, PhD

Carlo Coen obtained a “Laurea” (Italian graduation) from the Sapienza University in Rome, with a thesis on Piero Gobetti and the cultural milieu of his times. He started working in the film business by rewriting dialogues for dubbed films. Soon after his graduation, Carlo was actively involved in the activities of a film club in Rome, by programming, working as a projectionist, and managing the life of the club. Starting from 1981, he has worked for the Italian Foreign Service and was posted abroad as the Director of Italian Cultural Institutes in New Delhi, Melbourne and Toronto. More recently (May 2013) he obtained a PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto with a dissertation on Italian horror films from 1960 to 1980. Carlo delivered lectures and papers at Universities in Canada, the United States, Italy, India and Australia. He taught various courses on Italian Cinema and Italian Culture at the University of Toronto and at York University from 2006 to 2013, and at present he teaches the same subjects at York University. He has been the chief programmer for the Toronto Italian Film Festival, the Love and Lust Toronto Film Festival and has been the Coordinator and the Director of Programming for the Italian Contemporary Film Festival in Toronto since 2015. In 2003, he conducted an eight-segment series on contemporary Italian films on OMNI TV. His presentations on OMNI TV continued during his tenure as Director of Programming for the ICFF. He has several publications to his credit on the major Italian directors and on Indian Cinema. Among them one should mention articles on Piero Gobetti, on Rossellini and his historical films, on Rosi and Sciascia, on Fellini, on the representation of Naples in film, and on the influence of Neorealism on Indian Cinema. He has also co-edited the volume “Italian Experimental and Independent Cinema”, published by the Edinburgh University Press in 2019.

Roberto Occhipinti

Born in Toronto, Bassist Roberto Occhipinti is a well-established presence in the Canadian and International Jazz scene. A five-time JUNO award-winning musician, he is equally at home playing classical music as well as jazz and world music. In addition to leading his own groups with five discs under his name, he has performed, toured and recorded with Jane Bunnett, Hilario Duran, Jamey Haddad, Jovino Santos Neto, Don Byron, Jeff Coffin, Uri Caine, Bruce Cockburn, Enrico Rava, Stefano Bollani and Dafnis Prieto. An award-winning producer, projects include recordings for Dafnis Prieto, Michael Occhipinti-Sicilian Jazz Project, Hilario Duran, The Gryphon Trio, ES:MO, Don Thompson. Recent recordings include “The Music of Don Thompson” featuring bassist Joel Quarrington and his own recording on Modica Music, “The Next Step” featuring Larnell Lewis and Adrean Farrugia.

Anneliese Schultz, MA, MFA

A Bread Loaf Scholar and Pushcart Prize nominee, Anneliese completed her MA in Italian and MFA in Creative Writing at UBC and was shortlisted for the 2016 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction. Her short stories have won numerous awards and been widely published, including in the Toronto Star, as well as recognized by the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Alpine Fellowship, and more. In 2023, she was longlisted for the Fugere Book Prize and shortlisted for Exile Editions’ ‘Best Canadian Short Story’ Award. Having studied and worked in Italy in the ‘70s, Anneliese later taught Italian at UBC for 20+ years. Living in a crazily creative German-Punjabi household in Vancouver, she is currently juggling climate fiction, a middle-grade ghost story, and an adult literary novel. Also found at laughinginthelanguage.com, she may one day complete her proposed bilingual novel “La Finta Italiana/The Pretend Italian.”