Virgilio Villoresi is a film director and visual artist whose distinctive language blends cinema, animation, and craftsmanship.
His work draws on historical avant-gardes, experimental cinema, and auteur animation, with influences ranging from Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger to Patrick Bokanowski, Jan Lenica, Jean Cocteau, and Paolo Gioli.
In 2005, he made his first short film, Frigidaire, entirely crafted with stop-motion and animated collage — the foundation of a poetic, handmade approach to moving images.
Since then, Villoresi has developed a visual language based on manual manipulation, optical illusions, and in-camera effects, rejecting CGI in favor of a tangible, theatrical aesthetic.
Alongside his film work, he has created live performances where sound and image merge in real time, exploring montage as music and time as a physical material.
He has directed short films, commercials, and music videos for international artists and brands such as Vinicio Capossela, John Mayer, Blonde Redhead, Bulgari, Fendi, Valentino, Etro, Dolce & Gabbana, Acqua di Parma, Max Mara, and Fornasetti.
His works have been awarded and screened at festivals including Cartoons on the Bay, Future Film Festival, NY Film Festival, Amsterdam Film Festival, and MUMIA Belo Horizonte.
In 2016, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival dedicated a full retrospective to his work.
He has exhibited in major group and solo shows such as Prospettiva Mobile (Rome), Lo sguardo espanso (Catanzaro), Stanze animate (Bisceglie), Trompe-l’œil e altre visioni (Ancona), Cinemagia (Forlì), and Avventure di una visione (Milan).
In 2021, Villoresi founded Fantasmagoria in Milan, a production house and creative studio for film and visual experimentation.
He recently completed his first feature film, Orfeo, inspired by Dino Buzzati’s Poema a fumetti, entirely shot on 16mm film and combining live action, stop motion, and handcrafted set design.
Golden LightGolden Light is a visual immersion into a dreamlike, symbolist universe, directed by Virgilio Villoresi with cinematography by Michele Brandstetter.
Set between complementary lights, shadows, and suspended human figures, the film avoids any digital effects: every optical illusion is crafted in real time through RGB lighting and handmade optical devices.
The protagonists, played by the director himself and actress Elizabeth Kinnear, move within a mental landscape — two lovers/ghosts trapped within the folds of their own consciousness.
The imagery evokes a dialogue between perception and dream, memory and desire, in a visually rich and poetic atmosphere.
The work stands as a cinematic experiment that fuses music, light, and gesture, inviting viewers to lose and rediscover themselves within the shifting territories of imagination.
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