What a horrible year to celebrate a 50th festival edition! To make up for all cancelled festivities, the Giffoni festival launched a special Winter Edition – completely digital – dedicated mainly to children and their families.
The Giffoni festival, founded and directed by Claudio Gubitosi, was probably the first children’s film festival to fully adapt to the new situation, presenting already in August a part of their massive programme in a hybrid format. And again in December during the Winter Edition, around 1600 jurors connected from all over Italy to watch 50 titles in competition, listen to live music performances, and have online encounters with film professionals. Managing Director Jacopo Gubitosi: “With the first Winter Edition we gave concreteness to what was and remains a very strong need for us, to always remain close to our community in such a delicate moment as the one we are going through. We therefore proposed a digital experience, rich in content and with a strong emotional impact. We did this with the whole family in mind, for an audience from three years upwards with interesting activities for teenagers and parents.”
Children and parents were offered a selection of features and shorts, the Gex Doc programme was entirely dedicated to documentaries, while the Parental Experience event aimed to present short films and online meetings to parents.
There were plenty of special events to keep the entire family busy. To sum up a few:
– CAUGHT IN THE NET (Vít Klusák & Barbora Chalupová), a social experiment that has become an interventionist documentary, shedding light on the issue of child abuse on the net. An event supported by the Postal and Communications Police department, promoting a safer internet environment.
– A shared reading of some of the most beautiful Christmas stories, a journey made of words and rhymes, exceptional readers and interpreters.
The Giffoni Winter Edition had winners in three categories:
+6: THE ELFKINS: Baking a difference (Germany). For director Ute von Münchow-Pohl this was a return to Giffoni, having had three films already presented there (LAURA’S STAR & THE DREAMMONSTER, RAVEN THE LITTLE RASCAL – THE BIG RACE and RABBIT SCHOOL – GUARDIANS OF THE GOLDEN EGG).
+10: THE CLUB OF UGLY CHILDREN (the Netherlands, Jonathan Elbers).
Gex Doc section: 17 BLOCKS (US, Davy Rothbart) tells about the crisis of a nation over two decades through the rough and personal story of a family.