The Trieste Science+Fiction Festival gets a new poster from Zerocalcare

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, the leading event in Italy devoted to science fiction scheduled from October 29th to November 3rd, has unveiled the poster for the 2024 edition: an original illustration created by cartoonist Michele Rech, aka Zerocalcare, one of the most beloved authors on the Italian and international comics scene.

As well as this, the first film titles have been selected including SURVIVE, THE BUNKER, TEST SCREENING, BROKEN BIRD, THE INVISIBLE RAPTOR, THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT, SO UNREAL, THE A-FRAME and THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE.

The poster for the 24th edition of the Trieste festival illustrates the challenges and fears evoked by the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence, a technology that is no longer just the future but also the present in which machines, for the first time, are able to create something as new and artistic as a written text or an illustration. In fact, the recent development of Artificial Intelligence is leading us toward a science fiction movie scenario: a Fourth Industrial Revolution that will cause profound social disruptions and economic changes, completely reconfiguring the world of work and thus society itself. A revolution that opens up new possibilities, but also raises fears and fears by ushering in new and unpredictable scenarios.

As Zerocalcare explains, “the poster tells the story of the distance between how I imagined science fiction as a kid and how my expectations have evolved: we used to think that in the future machines would do the alienating and exhausting jobs, leaving humans free to dedicate themselves to the arts. Today, quite the opposite, the evolution of artificial intelligence shows us a possible dystopia in which machines replace us in drawing and writing, while people continue to wake up in the morning to go to their worksite.”

Zerocalcare is one of the most beloved and acclaimed authors on the Italian and international comics scene. His books, with which he describes the fears of an entire generation, have been appreciated and printed all over the world. In recent years he has written, directed, and voiced two animated series produced for Netflix (Strappare lungo i bordi in 2021 and Questo mondo non mi renderà cattivo in 2023) that have received public and critical acclaim.

Alan Jones, Artistic Director of Trieste Science+Fiction, said “From the past to the present and the future AI is in all our lives. That’s the reason the Trieste Science+Fiction mission statement this year is ‘BrAInstorm the MegaFuture’, something the global community needs to do as a matter of urgency. Because I am also the co-director of FrightFest, I see a very wide selection of genre films on both the busy FrightFest and Trieste Science+Fiction submission platforms. So there is a certain crossover aspect that I wholeheartedly embrace because if a title works for the discerning FrightFest audience, I know it will also work for the Trieste Science+Fiction spectator too.”

Films shared between the two festivals in 2024 are SURVIVE, THE BUNKER, TEST SCREENING, BROKEN BIRD, THE INVISIBLE RAPTOR, THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT, SO UNREAL, THE A-FRAME and THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE. I’m especially thrilled to present the latter documentary to the Trieste viewer because Christopher Lee was a past Trieste S+F Lifetime Achievement Award winner and we will be augmenting our screening with exclusive footage of the genre icon shot while we hosted him in the city he so warmly embraced.”

The 24th edition of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival promises a packed schedule of events and film previews. Held at the Politeama Rossetti and Teatro Miela, this year’s festival will showcase the finest global science fiction productions, encompassing a spectrum from horror to classic sci-fi. As every year, there will be no shortage of events dedicated to the connection between science and science fiction: Mondofuturo, the series of meetings to dialogue with popularizers and communicators of science about the world of tomorrow; IVIPRO Days, the annual event dedicated to video games as a resource for telling the story of cultural heritage; and the Fantastic Film Forum, a series of events dedicated to professionals in the film and audiovisual industry. Among this year’s novelties is the first edition of the Mondofuturo Literary Prize, an award for the best original science fiction book published in Italy in 2023, promoted by the national research organization Area Science Park and the Film and Audiovisual Research and Experimentation Center “La Cappella Underground.”