Film Screening: Anime galleggianti (Wandering Souls)

Join us for a special screening of Maria Giménez Cavallo’s debut feature film Anime galleggianti (Wandering Souls) (2024). Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Anime galleggianti is a journey through the mystical land of Sardinia. This hybrid film brings visual and musical ethnography into dialogue with classical mythology, combining documentary methods with fantasy. The intertwined destinies of Ovidian characters such as Persephone, Arachne, Callisto, Europa, Daphne and Orpheus culminate in the carnival ritual, symbolised by the island’s archaic masks. Embracing a poetic, post-humanist and non-anthropocentric vision, Anime galleggianti places nature in the foreground. Reimagining Ovidian mythology through Sardinian traditions, the film moves between reality and imagination, exploring metamorphosis across human, animal and natural worlds. The film screening is free and open to all, but advance booking is required. It will begin at 18:00, followed by a conversation with Maria Giménez Cavallo and a drinks reception. The event forms part of the international conference Grazia Deledda’s Waves: Networks, Memories and Legacies 100 Years After the Nobel Prize, taking place at Murray Edwards College on 25–26 September 2026. About the Film Anime galleggianti (Wandering Souls) Director: Maria Giménez Cavallo USA / Italy, 2024 70 minutes Languages: Italian / Sardinian / French (with English Subtitles) Genre: Fantasy drama About Maria Giménez Cavallo Maria Giménez Cavallo was born in New York in 1992 to an Italian-American mother and Spanish father. She got her B.A. from Columbia University in 2014, specialising in Film Studies, Italian Cultural Studies, and French Cultural Studies. After graduation, Maria moved to Paris to work with Abdellatif Kechiche for four years as artistic collaborator, first assistant director, casting director, and chief editor for the Mektoub, My Love trilogy (Venice 2017, Cannes 2019, Locarno 2025). She then moved to Rome to collaborate with Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher, and Francesco Munzi on set and in the editing room for a documentary shot on 16mm throughout Italy, Futura (Cannes Quinzaine 2021). She later following Pietro back to Paris, where she was artistic director on his French film L’Envol (Cannes Quinzaine 2022), and most recently accompanied him on Duse (Venice 2025). In 2020, Maria opened her own production company, Anima Films. Since then, she has made various short films with nature as the central theme, including La Visita (Locarno 2022), La Grande Quercia (Bellaria, FIFAM 2022), and Jeanne, petite bergère (Shortlist Quinzaine 2020). Recently, her hybrid fiction debut feature film Anime galleggianti, a reimagining of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, had its premiere at the Alice nella città Festival in Rome in 2024. In addition, her latest short film Les métamorphoses, au féminin starring Noémie Merlant just premiered at Venice’s Settimana della critica. About Grazia Deledda’s Waves The international conference Grazia Deledda’s Waves: Networks, Memories and Legacies 100 Years After the Nobel Prize marks the centenary of Grazia Deledda’s Nobel Prize in Literature and brings together an international community of scholars to foster new research into her life and writing. Across two days, the programme features eight panels alongside special events that bring Deledda’s work and Sardinian culture into conversation with contemporary visual art and cinema. The full programme is available on the conference website: https://conferencegraziadeleddacambridge2026.wordpress.com/ Support The international conference is supported by the Italian Section of the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge Intesa Sanpaolo Fund, the British Academy, the Italian Cultural Institute in London, CinemaItaliaUK, the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, the Society for Italian Studies, Il Circolo, the Interdisciplinary Network for Nineteenth-Century Italian Studies Ottocentismi and the British-Italian Society. Conference Organisers Dr Elena Sottilotta Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge [email protected] Dr Sara Delmedico Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna [email protected] Conference enquiries: [email protected] Location: Paula Browne House.