“LUNA ROSSA – CHALLENGERS FOR NOW” WINS BEST SERIES AWARD AT FOILING FILM FESTIVAL

The “Foiling Film Festival” awards ceremony of the first world film festival dedicated to foiling was held on June 29^th in Malcesine, in the scenic Palazzo dei Capitani. “Foiling Week” – the increasingly popular event dedicated to "flying" disciplines that takes place on Lake Garda from June 29^th to July 3^rd – launched its first film contest in the wake of the enormous success and popularity that all foiling sports have enjoyed in recent years.

The festival hosted the works of sixteen finalists, representing seven nations and competing in different categories among which Best Film, Short Film, Episode Series, Editing, Photography and Screenplay.

In the "Episode Series" category the prize went to the Luna Rossa web series "CHALLENGER FOR NOW". The sequence, divided in two seasons of four episodes each, brings spectators inside the well-guarded base of Cagliari and depicts the team as it trains at sea and on land, in design meetings and shore team activities, telling the story of the Italian adventure to conquer the oldest and most coveted sports trophy in the world from a privileged point of view. The story is enhanced by unpublished interviews with the team’s lead characters, and exclusive onboard footage with a unique perspective. Film cameras followed the team's daily activities for months, to reveal the “behind the scenes” of Luna Rossa’s challenge and allow an unprecedented glimpse of what it means to be part of such a fascinating enterprise as an America's Cup campaign.

This project was produced with the creative support of M&CSaatchi - Creative Partner of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team during the 36th America’s Cup - and the artistic contribution of the production company Utopia. Receiving the prize for the team was Stefano Baruffaldi, Luna Rossa’s drone pilot who was involved in the shoot of the series and from there started his collaboration with the team.

“…during this last period, training has intensified. It has taken many hours of sailing to get to know the boat. It is not simple: the AC75 is a complex and completely new “machine”, and helming it requires teamwork. It is a relationship of trust that must be earned every day, through difficulties, sacrifice, and rewards for the entire group. Luna Rossa is not just a boat that "flies on the water" at 100 kilometres per hour. Behind this ambitious project are hours spent at the simulator, hours spent by the design and shore teams developing the boat lines and building the components of the AC75. It is a complex project that has reached millimetric levels of precision. Tenths of grams are removed from the hull to gain a tenth of a knot on the water. It is precisely through these fractions of numbers that regattas are won. It is a long journey, a story of people and groups, of challenges and obstacles, of determination and commitment to grow as a team that works together without losing sight of one common goal: to win the America's Cup.’