Southern Italy's Giffoni Film
Festival, which attracted both seasoned Hollywood film stars and
rising young talent, has ended its 44th edition leaving everyone
wanting more.
"For the jurors, it is a difficult day, one of farewells,"
said Claudio Gubitosi, founder and artistic director of the
event celebrating children's films, with this year's theme: 'Be
Different'.
Hundreds of child jurors were involved as well as special
guests including veteran Hollywood star Richard Gere and
Britian's Alan Rickman, who played potions master Severus Snape
in the Harry Potter series.
Children from 50 different countries across seven
continents were involved in the Giffoni event, which this year
broadened its focus to include more of the Giffoni Experience, a
year-round initiative that organizes educational/entertainment
courses for schools.
Winners included Korean film Hope in the over 18 category;
German film Exit Marrakech in the category of 16 plus; and Cuban
film Behavour in the 13 years and old category.
"Never before have so many families participated," said
Gubitosi, whose event saw 163 films screened as well as four
master classes in acting, screenwriting, and journalism.
"Giffoni is true, loyal, and respectful of its public,
including those as young as three years old," he added.
"The festival is the most social of the world, there is
everything, film, television, and web", he said.
The 11-day festival brings children's films to centre stage
in the small town of Giffoni Valle Piana, located 40 kilometers
from Salerno, whose name is now synonymous with filmmaking.
Next year, Giffoni will focus more attention on music to
expand its base even further, said the director, whose event has
been widely praised for drawing much needed investment and
tourist interest into southern Italy, a region plagued with
economic hardship.
"Giffoni is a small town in the south that has managed to
reverse the trend," said Caterina Miraglia, councillor in charge
of cultural affairs for the Campania region.
Added Pietro Rinaldi, president of the Giffoni Experience:
"Giffoni is a positive and practical example for our South".
Fans camped out day and night in the hopes of seeing some
of the international stars attending the festival, such as Lea
Michele, who plays the talented Rachel Berry in the popular TV
series Glee; Matt Bomer, star of White Collar; Dylan O'Brien,
star of TV series Teen Wolf and film The Maze Runner; Ryan
Guzman, star of Step Up All In, which had its Italian premiere
at the festival; and Micaela Riera, taking over from Violetta on
the Disney Channel in Cata e i misteri della sfera, an
Italian-dubbed version of the Spanish-language Argentinian
series Senales del fin del mundo.
Among the Italian stars at the event were: Luca Argentero;
Cesare Bocci; Lorella Boccia; the cast from the RAI 1 series
Braccialetti Rossi; Marco D'Amore and Salvatore Esposito, two
stars from the breakout Sky hit series Gomorra; Isabella
Ferrari; Claudia Gerini; Max Giusti; Giulia Michelini; Ornella
Muti; Ferzan Oezpetek, Pierfrancesco Diliberti, a television
host nicknamed Pif, who opened the festival; Paolo Ruffini,
Sydney Sibilia, Vittorio Storaro and Giorgia Wurth.
Over the years, the number of children serving as jurors
has grown to reach 3,500 and the "meet & greet" events tickets,
allowing the public to meet the stars, sold out in record time
of under eight minutes.
Past stars appearing at the festival included the likes of
Robert De Niro, Oliver Stone, Meryl Streep, Samuel L. Jackson,
Jeremy Irons, John Travolta, Wim Wenders, Meg Ryan, Kathy Bates,
Krzystof Kieslowsky, Roman Polanski, Emir Kusturica, Jon Voight,
Susan Sarandon, Edward Norton, Nicolas Cage, Mira Sorvino, Naomi
Watts, Winona Ryder, Danny de Vito, Sergio Leone, Sacha Baron
Cohen, Giancarlo Giannini, and Ugo Tognazzi.
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