When they say fly the flag for your country…this is precisely what Stefano Muti (Cosmomedia), writer and producer of the documentary Vinum Insulae, and Antonio Arrighi, aider and abettor of the marine wine experiment Nesos, did when they brought the Elba flag up onto the podium of honour. The awards were presented by the Festival Director Henri Laurent Arnould, during a ceremony which took place at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, seat of Senate of the Fifth Republic. 

Vinum Insulae raked in the prizes at Marseille: Best Short Film, in recognition of its cinematographic quality, and the Revue des Œnologues, for the originality and success of the experiment. 

Among the 144 videos selected from seventeen countries, Vinum Insulae was the only one of three Italian videos to win awards. The documentary, directed and produced by Stefano Muti (Cosmomedia), talks about a unique oenological experiment realised by the Azienda Agricola Arrighi, from the Island of Elba, in collaboration with Professor Attilio Scienza, from the Department of Viticulture at the Università degli Studi di Milano and the University of Pisa.

The film was made with the support of the Associazione Albergatori dell’Isola d’Elba and the patronage of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. It was entered in the shortlist of 37 films (from a longlist of 144 from seventeen countries) for the final of the twenty-sixth edition of the International Œnovidéo Festival, the oldest international festival dedicated to the promotion of vine and wine images through film documentaries, short fictional films and photography.

The International Œnovidéo Festival, which presents viticultural film and photography from all over the world, took place at the Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM) in Marseille. The documentary narrated the Nesos project, the marine wine: a scientific experiment that went back in time to the oenological practices of the Greeks on the island of Chios, who produced ‘legendary’ wines: ‘the wines of the rich’, according to Varro.

The film worked with sounds and images, whether discussing the scientific importance of this project, as highlighted by Professor Attilio Scienza, or the magic of cultivating and producing wine. The shots were framed by the earth, the grapes, the sea and the panoramas of Elba. It explored themes of sustainability and the environment, such as the practice of using salt water as an antiseptic: a true ‘return to the future’.