Emma Onesti is the filmmaker and artist behind the documentary Dove siamo? (Where are we?), currently presented at the Filmmaker Festival. The 61-minute film, produced in 2023, arrived on the scene as the winner of the Nicola Curzio Prize for Best Film in the Prospettive (Perspectives) section.
This personal exploration follows part of Emma’s family, specifically focusing on the second marriage of her father to Valentina and their seven-year-old son Simone, who is on the autism spectrum. Captured during vacations and family outings, the work transitions from detached observation to active participation. Emma seeks to understand her own position within this unit, moving from the gaze of a tourist to a deeper involvement in the active life of a family that does not entirely belong to her. By avoiding standard cinematic tropes and rhetoric regarding neurodiversity, she documents the daily rhythms and authentic balances of a group of people living with the condition every day.
The film was independently produced in 2023 as part of Emma’s university thesis and completed through a crowdfunding campaign supported by friends, acquaintances, and external contributors. In 2026, the tour promoting the documentary received support from SIAE through the Per Chi Crea (For Those Who Create) program.
Born in Salerno in 1999, Emma built her professional foundation in Milan, where she graduated in art history and later in cinema. She has worked for several years in the fields of documentary and video art, focusing on the representation of relationships and social dynamics. Her career includes her first experimental short film, Tatiana (2022), an artist portrait presented at the Filmmaker Festival and other international events such as Working Title, Vertigo Film Fest, and Chameleon Film Festival. Beyond her win at Filmmaker 2023, Dove siamo? (Where are we?) earned the ZaLAB Prize at Front Doc 2024 for its honesty and modesty in telling a family story without judgment. It also participated in Visioni Italiane 2024 and the Disability Film Festival 2025. Emma also produced the installation Piccolo Atlante Balneare (Small Seaside Atlas) with Lab80, which toured festivals in Italy and Portugal. In 2024, she joined the Becoming Maestre (Becoming Maestras) masterclass by Netflix and the David di Donatello and completed a residency under Michelangelo Frammartino and Giovanni Cioni. She is currently in pre-production for her second feature documentary, L’ultimogiornod’inverno (The Last Day of Winter), developed within the Milano Film Network.
The documentary is currently touring across Italy throughout February 2026 with screenings in Perugia, Naples, Rome, Pisa, Bergamo, Milan, and Ancona. These events feature the presence of Emma alongside various critics and directors, including Matteo Marelli, Luca Mosso, Antonio Pezzuto, and Martina Parenti. The tour allows audiences to engage with a work that critics have described as a lucid and moving piece that feels as warm as a family film while maintaining a rigorous observational eye. Through Emma’s lens, viewers are invited to reflect on the meaning of presence and the lived experience of those who live alongside neurodiversity, moving away from the usual myths of the individual to focus on the strength of collective family balances.
Pinocchio Magazine comment:Emma addresses the vital theme of neurodiversity with a precision that makes it impossible to ignore. By stripping away common cinematic clichés and easy sentimentality, she creates a necessary space for genuine public awareness. It is a film that is as socially significant as it is honestly told, marking an essential contribution to how we perceive and discuss neurodiversity today.Inizio modulo
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