Closing Night Feature Film
No Dogs or Italians Allowed

Interdit aux chiens et aux italiens


US Premiere

Sunday, January 29, 2023
8:30pm

Festival Closing Night Party from 7:30–8:30pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall

All Ages



Dir. Alain Ughetto, 2021, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Color. 70 min.
Voiced by Ariane Ascaride
In Italian and French with English subtitles

2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival — Jury Award
In competition, 2022 Locarno Film Festival

Told as a fictional dialog between Alain Ughetto, the filmmaker, and Cesira, his grandmother, this charming stop-motion film is a deeply personal, yet universal account of the hard-working Italian immigrants who fled poverty and fascism at the turn of the 20th Century. Wide-eye puppets face hardship with resilience and courage in a world where trees are broccoli, mountains are pieces of charcoal, and bricks are sugar cubes.

While based on the personal tale of Ughetto’s family, the themes of the strength and courage it takes to immigrate and assimilate to a new culture will resonate with anyone who has been a new person in a new place.

Join us at the Closing Night Party from 7:30–8:30pm in FIAF Tinker Auditorium.

Before No Dogs or Italians Allowed, FIAF will announce the winners of this year’s US & French Student Short Film Competition and present the results of the Animation Jam. See details below.

About Alain Ughetto

Alain Ughetto is an award-winning director and screenwriter.

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    • In 1985, Alain Resnais awarded him the César for best animated short film for La Boule. In 2013, he directed Jasmine, in which his love story is played out in the turmoil of Tehran in the late 1970s. No Dogs or Italians Allowed (2021) is Ughetto’s second feature length film that details the hard-working Italian immigrants who fled poverty and fascism.

US & French Student Short Film Competition Award Ceremony

The Animation First Student Short Competition features the work of emerging talent from some of the most renowned animation schools in France and the United States. The winners will be announced, and their films screened, during the festival’s closing night program, on Sunday, January 29 at 8:30pm in FIAF Florence Gould Hall prior to the feature film, No Dogs or Italians Allowed.

Animation Jam

This year, Animation First will launch its first Animation Jam, where students will be given 48-hours to complete an animation sequence. The animated sequences will be unveiled during the festival’s closing night program, on Sunday, January 29 at 8:30pm in FIAF Florence Gould Hall prior to the feature film, No Dogs or Italians Allowed.