Roberto Catani was born in Jesi in 1965.
Graduated in Animated Film in 1986 at the Institute of Art "Scuola del Libro" in Urbino. Since 1988/89 he teaches "Art of Animated Film".
Several times selected for the illustrators' exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, he collaborates with the magazine Lo Straniero directed by Goffredo Fofi and the magazine Gli Asini, he creates illustrations for FATATRAC and ZOOLibri. He created the illustrations for the posters of the “Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival”, the “Siena International Short Film Festival”, “Cartoons on the bay” and “Presente Italiano”. He participates with his films at the world exhibition for 100 years of animation cinema in Pesaro, at the meetings on "Art and Animation" organized by Asifa Italia at the Museum of Modern Art in Turin, at the International Meetings on Animation cinema in Saint-Quay Portreux in France, at the 7th International Film Festival on Contemporary Art ARTECINEMA in Naples and at the Open Roads: new Italian cinema at the Lincoln Center in New York.
He exhibited his drawings and films at the exhibitions on Italian animation cinema in Trento, Rome (Palazzo Trevi), London, Annecy, Berlin, Lille, Treviso, Viterbo, Jesi, Conversano and Rimini (Biennial of Drawing).
 
In 1989 he began his work in animated cinema, realizing in collaboration with Stefano Franceschetti, the drawings and animations for the music video clip The bride child, by Ivan Graziani.

In June 2006 he created the animations for Ombre dal Lupercale (Piazza Tevere, Rome), a collective screening of animated sequences in which among others participate: Kiki Smith, Maureen Selwood, Kristin Jones.
In 2014 he obtained the Honoris Causa Diploma at the CSC, National Film School.

His films have been selected in official competition at major international festivals and has obtained the following prizes and awards:

First Prize at the Pencil Ffilm Ffestival '98 (Italy); First Prize at the International Animation Festival of Espinho '98 (Portugal); First Prize Clipstrip '98 (Italy); Second Rudiae '99 Prize (Italy); Special Jury Prize at the Fano Film Festival (Italy); Jury Prize at the Children Film Festival in New York '99 (USA); First Prize Dervio '00 (Italy); First Prize at the Zagreb International Animation Festival '00 (Croatia); Special Mention of the Jury at the Siena '00 Short Film Festival (Italy); Special Mention of the Naples Circuit Short Jury (Italy); Special Mention of the Jury for its artistic qualities at the Annecy Festival (France 2002); Special prize at the Hiroshima International Festival (Japan 2002); Nomination for Cartoon d’Or 2002; Silver Ribbon as best animated short film at the 40th edition of the international cinema meetings (2003); Mediateca delle Marche Award and Second Prize at the Fano Film Festival 2002 (Italy); Special Mention of the Jury at the Festival of Animated Castles in Genzano 2002 (Italy); Best Animated Film Siena International Short Film Festival 2002; Third prize at the Dresden Film Fest (Germany); Special Mention at the Matita Film Festival of Guardiagrele 2003 (Italy); Critics Award at the Animation Film Festival in Wissembourg (France); Jury Prize at the Krakow Festival (Poland); Jury Grand Prix at ANIMATEKA (Ljubljana); Special Mention of the Jury in Annecy, (France); Kinodot Film Festival Jury Prize (2015); Best animated film EuganeaFilmFestival (Italy 2015); Special Mention of the IAFF KROK Jury (Ukraine 2015); Special Mention of the Jury in Balkanima (Belgrade 2014); Special Jury Mention at ISFF in Vilnius (Lithuania 2015); Special Jury Mention at the CutOut Fest (Mexico 2014).

 

His latest film, Per tutta la vita, selected in official competition in over 120 international festivals of Animated Cinema and Short Film, has obtained the following awards: Jury Grand Prix at the "Sommet du cinema d'animation" (Montreal 2018 ); Special Mention to Animateka (Ljubljana 2018); Shortlist Davide di Donatello (2019); Special Mention in Sorsi Corti (Palermo 2019); Special Mention at Lago film festival (Treviso 2019); Special Mention to Imaginaria (Conversano 2019); Special Mention at the Fano Film Festival (Fano 2019); First Prize (Best Experimentalal) Flickers int. film festival (Rhode Island USA 2019); Best Director of the Animated Film at Animaevka (Belarus 2019); First prize at Animaphix (Bagheria 2019).

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