Giffoni Macedonia Youth Film Festival, the 11th edition is underway

FROM 5 OCTOBER IN SKOPJE CINEMA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF PEACE AND COHESION

The event is co-financed for Italy by the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture

The values ​​of peace and cohesion in the center of Europe through the language of cinema and art, this is the spirit that animates the eleventh edition of the Giffoni Macedonia Youth Film Festival that will be held in Skopje from tomorrow until October 10, in the places that traditionally host the Festival: the Cinema Millenium, the Youth Cultural Center MKC and the Cineteca of North Macedonia.

The initiative is organized by Giffoni in collaboration with Planet M—directed by Darko Basheski—and the Idea Artis association—directed by Dea Krstevska. It is co-financed for Italy by the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture, and also supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the National Cinema Agency of North Macedonia, and the Italian Embassy in Skopje.

The jury will be composed of more than 500 young people from North Macedonia divided into three categories, juniors (from 10 to 14 years old), cadets (from 14 to 16 years old) and seniors (from 17 to 19 years old), to which will be added the boys and girls from abroad: the Italian delegation will be present with 14 jurors and another 30 young people will come from Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Greece and France. The young people will express their vote by choosing among the five feature films in competition for each category, in addition to 40 shorts and animated films produced by young authors.

“The relationship between Giffoni and North Macedonia – declares Jacopo Gubitosi, general manager of Giffoni – is very solid and tells the story of a prolific and very constructive collaboration based on solidarity, on the sharing of visions and values. A heartfelt thanks goes to the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture who has chosen to support us with firmness and conviction, this eleventh edition represents a very important point of arrival. Giffoni has always been committed to supporting the protagonism of the young generations through the language of art, culture, cinema. We have the opportunity to live this very engaging experience in the heart of Europe, in the Balkan area, and to create bridges between countries, between communities, between young citizens who are increasingly aware of their role and the possibilities they have to change the world, improving it”.

The Festival will open tomorrow at the Cinema Millenium with a screening of the film “L'Arminuta” by Giuseppe Bonito, based on the novel of the same name by Donatella Di Pietrantonio.

“We are grateful to Giffoni which, like every year, supports us in the realization of the Festival in North Macedonia – says the Director of the Planet M Association Darko Basheski – which this year reaches its eleventh edition. We are committed to transmitting to young people, through cinematographic culture, the desire and curiosity to acquire new knowledge, to confront different cultures and to develop independent critical thinking. We are proud to have the privilege of being able to spread here too the dream and vision that Claudio Gubitosi had more than fifty years ago”.

In addition to the opening film, the official selection includes another Italian film, “Le proprietà dei metalli” by Antonio Bigini, competing in the Cadets category, while the short films will include “Recomaterna” by Giuseppe Sangiorgi, “Mariposa” by Maurizio Forcella, “Insetti” by Greta Zamparini, “Del padre e del figlio” by Mauro Lamanna, “O mio babbino caro” by Marco Di Gerlando.

“The first ten years we have been committed to growing and developing this wonderful idea that is Giffoni in North Macedonia. - underlines Dea Krstevska, director of the Idea Artis Association - a project that is certainly ambitious and therefore even more stimulating. Today we have a further reason to be satisfied: the collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with the EPYC project: here in the Western Balkans we are aware that young people are still exposed to prejudices inherited from previous generations, which can be overcome with a path of cultural growth and sharing of recognized values, the same values ​​that Giffoni spreads in Italy and in the world”.

This year's major innovation is the "EPYC: Enhancing Peace through Youth Creativity" section. This project, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as part of the Balkans 2022 Call, aims to contribute to the region's stabilization processes and advance the Western Balkan countries' EU accession process.

The Enhancing Peace through Youth Creativity (EPYC) project, developed by Giffoni, Idea Artis, and Planet-M, consists of creating an integrated platform for the eleventh edition of the Giffoni Macedonia Youth Film Festival, with activities aimed at promoting peace and cohesion, European values, and human rights through film, art, and culture. The idea was inspired by the awareness that film and art have an enormous power to engage young people, broadening their horizons and encouraging them to break free from the prejudices often inherited from previous generations and society. Among the works presented in this section is the documentary film "The Students of Umberto Primo" by Alessandra Maioletti.

In Thessaloniki, Greece, during the Nazi occupation, 96% of the Jewish population was deported to Auschwitz. This film documents the untold stories of some of the many young Jewish students who attended the Italian school Umberto Primo. They were forced to put aside their hopes and dreams to focus solely on survival. A pretext for telling the story of the Holocaust in Greece. The film is based on previously unknown archival material discovered by an Italian professor and the testimonies of the surviving protagonists.

On Tuesday 10 October, the closing ceremony will take place at the Millenium cinema, during which the winning films in the three categories will be announced, the prizes for the EPYC section will be awarded and, as per tradition, the works produced by the kids during the creative workshops will be presented to the public.