Author: Alessandro Arnold

The Meet the Expert series at AANT continued on Wednesday, January 29, with an event dedicated to dialogue between project culture, research, and institutions. The guest of the meeting was Margherita Pellino, representing the Fondazione Magistretti, who presented the Foundation’s activities and vision. The Fondazione Magistretti is an institution dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the design and cultural legacy of Vico Magistretti, a central figure in 20th-century Italian design and architecture. Through exhibitions, editorial projects, educational initiatives, and research activities, the Foundation promotes a contemporary reflection on design, keeping alive the dialogue between memory, innovation, and experimentation.

The event, moderated by Professor Ernesto Venanzi and prof. Cristiano Sammarco, of the bachelor’s degree Design – Interior & Product, aimed to introduce the Fondazione Magistretti by outlining its main areas of action, ongoing projects, and participation opportunities open to students, researchers, and professionals. Margherita Pellino’s contribution highlighted the importance of building networks between institutions, archives, education, and the professional world, fostering an open dialogue with younger generations.

The meeting took the form of an open discussion, encouraging reflection on themes related to design, cultural project development, and research, and providing undergraduate students with useful tools to better understand the dynamics of contemporary cultural institutions.

Guest note: Margherita Pellino collaborates with the Fondazione Magistretti, working on cultural projects and valorization activities, with a particular focus on design, archives, and the transmission of knowledge.

The Meet the Expert series continues with an event dedicated to storytelling the real through cinema, multimedia, and journalism. On Monday, January 27, AANT hosted Paolo Palermo, author and professional in audiovisual journalism, for an in-depth discussion on the transformations of contemporary narrative forms.

The meeting, moderated by Professor Valerio Di Paola, coordinator of the bachelor’s degree in Videomaking, Story, Cinema e Media Design, retraced some key stages of Palermo’s research and professional path, from traditional documentary filmmaking—also through the use of archival materials—to the webdoc, understood as a hybrid narrative form capable of intertwining videomaking, photography, and writing for the web.

During the event, the differences between reportage and investigative journalism were explored, with a focus on the role of videomaking in television journalism and the new responsibilities of the author within an ever-evolving media landscape. Particular attention was given to how storytelling forms have changed, the relationship with sources, and narrative construction in the digital era.

What emerged was a dialogue between different languages—cinema, multimedia, and journalism—which provided undergraduate students with critical tools to better understand new audiovisual professions and the contemporary challenges of representing reality.

Guest note: Paolo Palermo has been working for many years in the field of television investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking. His work includes reportage, in-depth investigations, and audiovisual projects focused on current affairs and social analysis.

On 23 and 24 January, AANT hosted the 10th edition of the 25th Hour, the creative marathon that represents one of the most intense and defining moments of academic life. A symbolic milestone, celebrated through 24 hours of design, dialogue, and experimentation, where creativity was tested against a real, complex, and multidisciplinary brief.

Five teams competed, each assigned a colour (yellow, green, blue, orange, and red), and were tasked with working on an authentic professional assignment for two institutional clients: the Groupe des Ambassadeurs Francophones (GAF) and the Institut français Centre Saint-Louis (IFCSL), organiser of the Francofilm Festival.

For GAF, students were asked to design a new visual identity capable of representing its core values: dialogue, diversity, solidarity, respect for otherness, and peace. For IFCSL, students had to develop an integrated design system for the 16th edition of the Francofilm Festival: an official trailer video and its Instagram Reel version, a gamification concept, several proposals for festival space installations, and the design of the three official awards. The teams, made up of faculty and students from the three-year programmes, worked intensively for 24 hours.

What made this edition even more meaningful was its emotional dimension: the 25th Hour 2026 marked ten years of a format that tests skills, creative endurance, and the ability to work as a team, but above all builds relationships and a sense of belonging. Emotions, design tension, enthusiasm, and pride ran through the Academy for two consecutive days, also shared in real time on AANT’s social media channels.

At the end of the marathon, the red team took first place, standing out for its design coherence, conceptual strength, and execution quality. Only one winning team, but an experience shared by all participants, confirming the educational and human value of the 25th Hour.

AANT opened its doors for a new installment of the Open AANT series on January 20. The event, dedicated to the relationship between images and sound in audiovisual language, welcomed Jacopo Guarneri from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan as its guest.

The meeting was designed to offer students enrolled in three-year undergraduate academic programs a clear and up-to-date perspective on how sound plays a decisive role in constructing meaning in audiovisual works. Through an active dialogue with the students, Guarneri traced the evolution of the relationship between the visual and the sonic—from the birth of modern cinema to the experiments that have reshaped contemporary audiovisual language. The session also provided a practical look at the professional world of audio and sonic storytelling, with a focus on workflows, the roles involved, copyright issues, and audio branding strategies.

Guest note: Jacopo Guarneri is a composer, sound designer, and lecturer. After training in music and musicology, he developed his career across theatre, cinema, and audiovisual media, collaborating with major cultural institutions and leading production companies. At the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, he focuses on teaching and research into sonic languages applied to the stage and media, with particular attention to the relationship between music, image, and dramaturgy.

On Saturday, January 17, AANT hosted an official casting for a new Netflix series, whose title remains strictly top secret. The selection involved approximately 300 students who met the profiles sought by the platform: creatives, artists, and musicians—an authentic representation of Generation X. This initiative offered a valuable opportunity not only to be assessed by industry professionals, but also to gain first-hand experience of the real dynamics of contemporary serial production. For the selected participants, a fixed daily fee is provided for each day of filming, which will take place in Rome.

The decision to hold both the casting and the preliminary shooting within the Academy represents tangible recognition of the quality of AANT’s educational programs and of the strong preparation of students enrolled in its three-year academic courses, who are increasingly being identified and engaged by major international productions.

On Friday 23 and Saturday 24 January, the Academy of Rome will host the 25th Hour, AANT’s creative marathon that challenges the talent, vision, and design skills of students and faculty. An intensive, immersive experience that, over 24 consecutive hours, brings together five multidisciplinary teams tasked with responding to a real-world brief. The client remains secret until the event begins. A hands-on exercise in applied creativity which, inspired by an actual request, allows students to experience the Academy in a new way—building close collaboration with peers from other classes and years, as well as with faculty from every three-year program.

The 25th Hour represents a particularly meaningful moment in the AANT educational pathway: a laboratory where discussion, collaboration, and time management become essential tools for growth. Students and faculty work side by side, sharing skills, methodologies, and perspectives, in a context that fosters experimentation and innovation.

As every year, the initiative is also open to the public, giving prospective future students of the three-year academic programs the opportunity to take part in the event as “Ghosts,” following live, in real time, every step that leads to the final project to be presented to the client. An unmissable opportunity to get to know AANT’s teaching model.

The 25th Hour is not only a race against time, but an experience that turns an idea into a project and training into professional practice. Over the years, major names have taken part as clients from the most diverse sectors. Just to mention a few: Open Arms, Fater Group, Casa delle Donne, and Coffee Core.

Curious to find out this year’s secret client? Follow our activity on AANT’s social channels!