GREEN LAVA, directed by Lia Beltrami, recipient of the 2017 Venice Golden Lion for Peace, and Ali Aksu, will move forward for consideration for the 99th Academy Awards.

DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHT

LIA BELTRAMI & ALI AKSU

GREEN LAVA

A Life That Refuses to Petrify

There are films that tell us about a condition, and there are films that ask us to look beyond the condition and see the human being.

GREEN LAVA, directed by Lia Beltrami and Ali Aksu, belongs to the latter.

Set against the extraordinary landscape of the Dolomites, the documentary follows Giacomo Mattivi, a young man living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who refuses to allow illness to become the definition of his existence. At 22, his world is filled with university lectures, football matches with friends, family, poetry, faith, nature, and even a small egg-selling enterprise. Yet beneath these seemingly ordinary moments lies an extraordinary struggle, shaped not only by his own condition but also by the loss of his brother Mattia, who died from the same disease.

GREEN LAVA does not approach Giacomo through pity.

It approaches him through life.

And that distinction is at the heart of the film.

FROM FRIENDSHIP TO LEGACY

The original impulse behind GREEN LAVA was to explore the power of friendship and human connection in the face of unimaginable circumstances. But as the filmmakers entered deeper into Giacomo's world, the center of the film naturally shifted.

The story became Giacomo himself.

His courage. His vulnerability. His faith. His humor. His relationship with his family and friends. His awareness of mortality. And above all, his determination to live fully within the time he has.

The result is not simply a documentary about Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is an intimate portrait of a young man asking some of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What does it mean to live? What remains after us? How can suffering become a source of meaning rather than a wall that separates us from life?

The filmmakers describe the experience as a profound encounter with resilience, mortality and the value of human connection. Their hope is not merely that audiences understand Giacomo's circumstances, but that they reconsider their own relationship with life, love, time and the people around them.

GREEN LAVA

The title itself carries the philosophy of the film.

GREEN evokes the living landscape of the Dolomites, its forests, grass, mountains and extraordinary natural beauty.

LAVA suggests something powerful beneath the surface, molten, restless and unstoppable.

Together, the two words create a poetic contradiction.

On the surface, Giacomo's life can appear peaceful and ordinary: university, friends, family, football, nature.

Underneath, there is an enormous force.

His illness.

The loss of his brother.

The awareness of mortality.

And an extraordinary determination to continue living.

GREEN LAVA therefore becomes more than a title. It becomes a metaphor for a life that refuses to become still, refuses to petrify, and continues to move even when circumstances seem determined to stop it.

That philosophy is reflected in one of Giacomo Mattivi's most striking ideas:

“Humans must live like lava, so as to not petrify.”

THE STORY BEYOND THE SCREEN

Giacomo's relationship with this film began with a deeply personal request.

After seeing Lia Beltrami's documentary Burst of Song, in which one of the young protagonists died during production, Giacomo approached Lia and asked her to make a documentary about him, so that his story could live beyond his own lifetime.

That request became the beginning of GREEN LAVA.

It transformed the film from a conventional documentary into something closer to a cinematic testament, a record of a life consciously choosing to leave something behind.

During production, Giacomo's health deteriorated, making the completion of the film increasingly urgent. The filmmakers and crew responded by making the project a priority, working through long nights and demanding schedules because they understood that this was not simply a production.

It was an opportunity for Giacomo to see his own legacy.

FROM THE DOLOMITES TO THE VATICAN

GREEN LAVA's journey has already extended far beyond the Dolomites.

The film premiered in Rome on January 25, 2025, during the Jubilee of the World of Communications, in collaboration with the Vatican Dicastery for Communication. Vatican News documented the screening and described the film as a work centered on Giacomo's life, faith, family and community.

Giacomo's story had previously been explored through a Vatican Radio and Vatican News podcast series, where his poetry, faith and experience of living with disability became part of a wider conversation about inspiration, creativity and human connection.

His journey also brought him into contact with Pope Francis during the Jubilee of Communications.

These elements are not presented simply as milestones around the film. They form part of the larger human landscape from which GREEN LAVA emerged: faith, community, vulnerability, friendship and the determination to find beauty even within suffering.

TWO DIRECTORS, TWO PERSPECTIVES

At the center of GREEN LAVA are two filmmakers whose backgrounds bring different dimensions to the project.

Lia Beltrami has spent three decades creating documentary work focused on human rights, social justice, education, ecology and stories of resilience. With more than 55 documentaries to her name, she has built a body of work around the belief that art can become an active force for personal and social transformation.

Her work through Emotions to Generate Change reflects that philosophy, combining filmmaking with artistic and social initiatives. Her recognition includes the Golden Lion for Peace in Venice and the Earth Reporter Award.

For Beltrami, GREEN LAVA became an opportunity to enter deeply into Giacomo's world and to portray a life lived through faith, community and an extraordinary desire to remain open to the world.

Ali Aksu, the film's co-director and producer, brings another dimension to the project through his experience as a filmmaker, entrepreneur and investor, as well as his work in socially impactful storytelling through Untold.

His involvement reflects a broader commitment to bringing untold stories to audiences and creating projects capable of connecting cinema with meaningful social impact.

Together, Beltrami and Aksu approach GREEN LAVA not simply as observers of Giacomo's life, but as filmmakers entrusted with preserving a deeply personal story.

A CINEMATIC LANGUAGE OF INTIMACY

GREEN LAVA was photographed using three cameras, including Canon, Sony and Panasonic systems, creating a visual approach capable of moving between the vastness of the Dolomite landscape and the intimacy of Giacomo's everyday existence.

The contrast is essential.

The mountains are immense.

The human story is intimate.

And somewhere between those two scales, GREEN LAVA finds its cinematic identity.

The film's world is populated not only by Giacomo, but by his family, friends and community, creating a portrait in which individual resilience is inseparable from human connection.

WHEN LIFE BECOMES A LEGACY

One of the most powerful aspects of GREEN LAVA is that the film does not ask audiences to look at Giacomo and see only what he has lost.

It asks us to see what he has created.

A community.

A body of poetry.

Relationships.

Memories.

A philosophy of life.

And now, a film.

That is why the documentary's emotional center is not mortality itself, but the decision to live meaningfully in its presence.

Giacomo's words, inspired by Italo Calvino, become an appropriate philosophy for the entire work:

“Humans must live like lava, so as to not petrify.”

GREEN LAVA takes that idea and turns it into cinema.

THE ROAD TO THE 99TH ACADEMY AWARDS

In September 2026, GREEN LAVA began its Los Angeles theatrical qualification journey with a screening run at Lumiere Music Hall in Beverly Hills from September 18 through September 24. Vatican News reported that the engagement was part of the film's qualification path for the Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Short Film category.

The Academy has officially scheduled the 99th Oscars for March 14, 2027, with the 2026 awards season covering films within the applicable eligibility period and subject to the Academy's rules and submission requirements.

Following the completion of its Lumiere qualifying engagement, GREEN LAVA is therefore moving forward in its campaign toward consideration for the 99th Academy Awards.

For a film born from one young man's desire to leave his story behind, the journey from the Dolomites to Beverly Hills represents something much larger than an awards campaign.

It represents the expansion of a message.

Giacomo has already expressed his hope that GREEN LAVA will allow his message to reach as many people as possible. Vatican News has similarly documented the film's journey toward Hollywood and its ambition to carry that message to a wider audience.

A FILM ABOUT SEEING DIFFERENTLY

Perhaps the most appropriate way to understand GREEN LAVA is through the words of Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, who described the film as an “antidote” to clouded eyes and as a journey into the beauty of life and friendship.

That idea reaches beyond disability.

All of us carry assumptions about what a life should look like.

GREEN LAVA asks us to reconsider them.

It asks us to look again.

Not at the illness first.

Not at the limitations first.

But at the person.

At the laughter.

At the friendships.

At the family.

At the landscape.

At the poetry.

At the faith.

At the courage to continue.

And ultimately, at the enormous force that can exist inside a human life even when, from the outside, everything appears quiet.

That is GREEN LAVA.

A film about a young man who refuses to petrify.

A film about the people who refuse to let him face the world alone.

And a film that carries one simple but profound invitation:

Keep living. Keep moving. Keep the lava alive.

GREEN LAVA

Directed by: Lia Beltrami & Ali Aksu 

Written by: Simona Paggi, Marianna Beltrami & Deana Walker

Featuring: Giacomo Mattivi 

Produced by: Ali Aksu & Lia Beltrami 

Producer: David Dubinsky 

Associate Producer: Piera Van de Wiel 

Edited by: Simona Paggi 

Director of Photography: Sebastiano Rossitto 

Original Music: Alberto Beltrami & Carlos Biondini

Production: Emotions to Generate Change

In collaboration with: Vatican News, Radio Vaticana, Vatican Media & Untold

- World House of Cinema Artists