His first professional animated short film, Hasta Santiago, won Cristal for a Short Film  at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2014, and went on to win two dozen other awards around the world and was screened at Primanima. His most recent film, Aubade, made in 2014, won a pitch at the Annecy Festival. The film was selected by more than 150 festivals and won several awards. Mauro has been a jury member at several festivals, including Warsaw, Seoul and the Krok International Animation Film Festival.

You come from Italy, studied in France and you’re currently based in Switzerland. Are there any characteristics in Italian, French or Swiss animation what you can take and use in your own work?

It is obvious that all these cultural influence made me who I am now. There are elements I like in all of three of them. I like the naive perspective in Italian animation and the composition in some low budget works. In France there is great tradition of animation, I like the precision of it. The fact that I studied in France is noticeable in my technique, the French point of view stayed with me. It is strange in Switzerland because the directors work in many different style, you can’t find a coherent aesthetics. What I like mostly is the storytelling, the way they tell something really simple to the audience, they don’t overthink it too much. But in the end I am more interested in and at least I’m watching more Russian animation, especially the films of the new generation. These are really deep, soulful works with a strange atmosphere and with a personal touch. 

What makes animation the best media for capturing the little details of everyday life?

Animation is a great media to really say what you have exactly in mind. You can talk about these little details but you can also evoke a picture from your memory. This is my primary research, dreams and remembrance. This happened with me with my second professional window, Aubade. I wanted to reimagine the small and simple moments of an early morning which I saw once, to share my personal view. I always have a strong sensation in my gut when I experience something and I know that moment is important and I have the motivation to share it with the audience. It is part of the process to make a contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. When I made my diploma film Matatoro in 2010 I saw a bullfighting and it made a big impression on me, I didn’t know it was a good or bad feeling, but it was strong and I knew that it is a remarkable thing and it is worth to talk about. 

In your opinion, why does many people think 3D animation is less of a work of an auteur? What's your strategy to make it so?

When I started to do 3D animation there weren’t many good examples of auteur animation, besides Tomasz Bagiński from Poland. People still have the big American productions in mind when we talk about 3D. In school, I did a research which involved a lot of energy and I was trying to develop my style which I like to call sensitive 3D. My classmates in the beginning weren’t encouraging at all, they told me that a lot of people tried and failed. But I had something in mind, an aesthetic approach and wanted to make the best I could. It always involves a lot of testing and analysation, if something doesn’t work I keep trying until I have the results I’m happy with. I was and still am fascinated by 3D because I see it as a new media, it is younger than cinema and traditional animation. I’m sure there will be lots and lots of innovation in the technique and that’s why I continue the research. Of course all this investment is shared with my wish to tell a story. 

What's your advice to young artists who plan to study animation abroad or they want to work in animation outside their country?

In my social circle it is quite common that people move away, there are supposed to be no borders regarding studying and working nowadays. It could be a good experience to sort of build your life again in a new setting. I think if you set your mind to something and that country or school makes it possible to achieve your dream and you have the means then you should go. Why would you complicate your life? Of course, I was lucky because my parents supported me. For me going abroad was the only way to study what I wanted and now I don’t see a future in Italy. Maybe it is possible to succeed, but to be honest, I never tried. I think that staying in your country and build something from scratch is quite brave and I would call that an even bigger success.