Playing God: Arianna Gheller on the Journey of an Oscar-Qualifying Short

Playing God, directed by Matteo Burani and produced by Arianna Gheller, is a 2024 animated short that represents an Italy–France co-production, with Italy as the majority partner. Produced by Studio Croma Animation, the film is distributed internationally by Autour de Minuit and in Italy by Sayonara Film, and has already achieved remarkable success on the festival circuit.

To date, Playing God has garnered 160 official selections, including 13 Oscar-qualifying, and won 80 awards. Among its most prestigious recognitions are the selection at the 39th Settimana della Critica at the Venice International Film Festival, where it received the FEDIC Award for Best Short Film; the 2025 Nastro d’Argento for Best Animated Short; and participation in the international competition at Clermont-Ferrand 2025.

The awards that officially made the film Oscar-qualified were the Grand Jury Award and the Best Stop Motion Award at the Animayo International Film Festival in Gran Canaria, followed shortly after by the Best Animated Short Film award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Italy Meets Hollywood sat down with producer Arianna Gheller for a brief conversation about the film’s journey and the prospects of Italian animation.

Playing God has achieved extraordinary results, with over 160 official selections and 80 awards. Looking back at the production journey, what were the key first steps that enabled an Italian–French co-produced animated short to establish itself so quickly on the international stage?

Arianna Gheller: I believe that originally—before distribution strategies and major premieres—what truly made the difference in our case was the extensive communication we carried out throughout the film’s seven years of production. We always put a lot of effort into telling our story, sharing the identity of Studio Croma, and highlighting every aspect that defined the making of this film: the behind the scenes, the magic of the technique, the creative problem solving on set, as well as the incredible joy and relief we felt after finishing the very last shot! A great deal of buzz and anticipation had built up around its release. Over the years, we developed a real following of people who were either passionate about animation or simply curious to see if we would actually make it. Incredibly, the name Playing God spread far and wide.

The crowdfunding campaign we launched in 2021 as the project’s first source of financing was also a key milestone in getting people to talk about the film we were creating. It was through that campaign that we met the French co-producer who eventually came on board.

Another important decision—one that turned out to be the right intuition—was to work with two distributors: one focused on the international market and another dedicated to Italy, who knew the territory and its opportunities. We wanted widespread distribution at home as well, because it felt both necessary and right to strongly assert our presence as resilient artists and craftsmen of animation in this country. We wanted to send a compelling message to challenge certain stereotypes about animation that still persist here and to give a jolt to the local market, which is still evolving far too slowly with an eye toward the international stage.

Finally, a fundamental milestone was the world premiere at the Settimana della Critica of the Venice Film Festival—a stage as unexpected as it was important—followed by many selections at major festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand (where we were the only Italian short in the international competition), Animayo, Palm Springs ShortFest, and the Tribeca Film Festival, where we became the first Italian short in the festival’s history to win the top prize for Best Animated Short.

What types of funding supported the making of Playing God, and how crucial were they in enabling the project to reach completion?

Arianna Gheller: As I mentioned earlier, the first step of financing was the Kickstarter campaign we launched in 2021. Fortunately, it was successful and, in my view, gave the project real credibility.

With that initial piece of funding in place, we then applied for and received support from the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission through its regional production fund. We were very pleased that they decided to believe in us and support our work. After that, we successfully applied for the selective production funding and the film tax credit offered by the Italian Ministry of Culture. Finally, a combination of personal investment—both in kind and financial—and support from the French CNC, which covered part of the post-production, completed the financing plan.

This structure was essential for allowing us to work on the film over the past year and a half with greater peace of mind, enabling us to focus entirely on it. It also made both the studio and the project more “official” and recognizable to the relevant institutions. Production lasted seven years, beginning in 2017. At the start, we didn’t have a solid production or financial structure—we were driven mainly by the urge to make this film. Stopping to acknowledge that we needed to reset with a stronger and more formal setup was not easy, because it meant interrupting production and learning what it truly meant to work as producers. Without that pause, we might still have achieved high quality thanks to our meticulous work, but most likely we would still be working on it today. Looking back, it turned out to be a crucial decision.

With its prestigious win at Tribeca—on top of the film’s Oscar-qualifying selections—how do you see this milestone boosting Playing God’s international trajectory and, more broadly, the visibility of Italian animation?

Arianna Gheller:

This recognition marks a milestone of enormous strategic value, both for the film itself and for the entire Italian animation industry. It adds to the awards previously won at Oscar-qualifying festivals—such as the Grand Jury Award at Animayo Gran Canaria, which first secured our eligibility for the Academy—and gives us strong momentum going into Awards Season. The prize awarded at Tribeca places the film in a high-profile international context and, coming from one of the most influential festivals in the independent film landscape, provides global visibility and critical legitimacy that can open many doors.

Italian animation, while growing, often suffers from budget constraints and limited access to foreign markets or even to domestic distribution outside the festival circuit. A success like Playing God can become a positive case study, encouraging investors, international producers, and national distributors to pay closer attention to Italian talent and potential. Moreover, in many markets, Italian animation is still perceived as marginal or aimed primarily at children. A film like Playing God, which tackles complex themes with a mature and innovative style, helps shift that perception, showing that Italy can also produce animated works that are auteur-driven, contemporary, and universal.

In your view, what is the main message that Playing God seeks to convey to its audience?

Arianna Gheller: Playing God is a profound and timely reflection on identity, marginalization, and the universal need for belonging. The film highlights how the pursuit of perfection—often imposed by rigid and unattainable social models—can lead to rejection, but also how self-acceptance and acceptance of others can pave the way toward a more authentic and inclusive sense of community.

In this sense, “God” should not be understood in a religious way, but rather as a metaphor for a social system that creates us, judges us, and at times discards us. Playing God portrays human beings as sculptures: shaped, tested, and constantly measured against unrealistic standards. Yet even within this cycle of expectations and disappointments, a quiet but resilient strength emerges—the strength of those who, though marginalized, discover dignity, awareness, and solidarity.

Ultimately, the film is an anthem to the invisible, the excluded, and the forgotten, who together may represent a new majority. The message we hope reaches the audience is twofold: on one hand, an invitation to empathy and listening; on the other, a call to reflect on how we construct our identities and relationships within a world that so often asks us to be something other than who we truly are.

You hold a dual role as both producer and animator of a stop-motion short. How did you manage this double responsibility, and in what ways did the two perspectives enrich each other?

Arianna Gheller: It wasn’t easy. I became a producer out of necessity, since the initial search for one was far from satisfying. No one seemed truly interested in the project or fully able to grasp its potential. Even when it came to drafting a preliminary budget, I noticed gaps in my counterparts, who were not at all accustomed to understanding the needs of animation—its grammar and its specific requirements.

At a certain point, it became clear that I had to take the lead myself, and I had to do it because, among all my colleagues, I was probably the one with the most “square head.” Who better than me could truly know our financial, technical, and artistic needs? Today, I’m proud of that choice and of all the skills and knowledge I’ve gained from this experience—skills that will be invaluable for future productions. But in the beginning, it was not easy to study and dive into certain production dynamics, whether bureaucratic or technical. I’m still learning even now.

Of course, my artistic involvement in the film also led me to make production decisions that, I imagine, if I had been an external and detached producer, I might never have approved—such as changing workflows or replacing teams midstream because they weren’t delivering the artistic results we wanted, or allowing ourselves the time necessary to refine an anatomical sculpture or to dig deeper into the emotional performance of the protagonist during the animation phase, which I handled personally and alone.

So yes, these two roles absolutely worked in synergy to do what was best for the film. And I’m convinced that for future productions taken on by Studio Croma Animation, this dual perspective will help me better understand the needs of the authors we work with, in order to create the best conditions and allow each work to truly breathe.