Endowed with a sensitive yet explosive nature, ever since his early youth Matteo expressed, together with a caring and sociable disposition, a need for self-reflection.
In his teen years, while his character was taking shape and his personality strengthened, he opened himself up with curiosity to new experiences once and again, always following his ceaseless, intimate conversation.
His restlessness inside, coupled with his energy and bright spirit, expressed themselves through a growing eclecticism. His drawings and paintings, his photographs, together with his writings – his whole life – exploded with a multitude of colors, signs, variations, with an all-out expressiveness that involved his family and countless friends as well.
His university years led him to deeper investigations and studies in many disciplines he had already being interested in as a teenager: arts, music, cinema and theater. Soon these interests evolved into different art forms such as videos, theater direction and movie screenwriting, the latter emerging as his most likely future.
In January 2009, while completing his graduation thesis Filming Locations in the Example of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission, Matteo wrote a short story titled I dreamed freedom in which he affirmed, among other things: “... what can I gather from these outlets? I want to write in my life, I would like that to be my job. Writing for films, film stories...”
Actually, the last thing he wrote was a screenplay inspired to Carlo Goldoni, to take part to the Collio Cinema 2009 Award competition.
Matteo lost his battle to leukemia on June 28, 2009, when he was about to reaping the fruits of his studies and his work.
On July 17, 2009, his twenty-third birthday, he would have defended his graduate thesis on cinema. That same day, the Chancellor of the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice awarded Matteo Caenazzo with an Honorary Graduation in Performing Arts and Media Studies. In recent news, he was also awarded with the status of journalist-publicist by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Journalist Association for his activity in journalism as a correspondent from Venice for the NTWK magazine.
Matteo may not be here anymore, but he lives in all of us and in this Award, carrying forward his thought, his work, and his ideals.
His knack for cultivating deep relationships, his love for others and his passion for a life that he lived to the fullest, with toughness and strength but also with lightheartedness and joy, are a gift to all of us... an unforgettable memory.

His friends say

...Matteo, you lived courageous and joyful, a warrior with a gentle smile...
...thank you, Matteo, for always sharing your passions and carrying them forward, who could forget the love and care you always showed toward your friends, your memory will always echo through the narrow streets of Venice...
...with the spark of life in his eyes, with the joy and enthusiasm that were always with him...
...to remember Matteo smiling and full of life is the most natural and spontaneous feeling to me... moments of joy and lightheartedness, moments of commitment and confrontation...
...to your all-embracing enthusiasm whenever you became fond of some “cinematographic cause”...
...your immense will to do, to belong, to be there and stay... your being alive...
...our countless “bacaro tour”, and you were the captain...
...always so bright-spirited and curious to discover all that a new day could offer...
...I will remember you on the tune of that rock song that made your eyes smile and your curls sway...
...his explosive energy, how Matteo could transmit it so easily...
...Matteo, film director of life...
...raider buddy, for me you will always be there, in those notes on my guitar, with your heart and soul...
...hard to imagine Matteo in any situation where he was not talking, sometimes with just a hint... a mane of tousled hair... together we laughed so much...
...I want to remember these beautiful things about Matteo the artist, the film director, the writer, the photographer and the movie and music lover, and again the worker and the “actor”, but most of all I want to remember the former student in Performing Arts and Media, now professor, Matteo Caenazzo, Bachelor of Arts...
...so much love you gave me... having a son, a friend like Matteo has been and will be a wonderful thing...
...your being absent-minded, serene, weary, alive...
...my regret is not being able to see just a little further inside Matteo’s magical world...