For the second year running, on the initiative of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and its director, Anna Maria Di Marco, a group of four students from various secondary schools in Malta and Gozo were chosen to represent Malta at the Giffoni Film Festival, now in its 38th year.
The festival started some 40 years ago, when a young film buff, Claudio Gubitosi, dreamt of offering young people the opportunity to discover the magic of film. In 1971, the Film Festival for Children and Young Adults was born in the tiny Italian town of Giffoni, tucked away in the foothills of the Apennines, a few kilometres away from Salerno.
Giffoni is no Cannes, Taormina or Capri, and the first few years of the festival were modest and low profile. But the turning point came in 1982, thanks to the participation of two pillars of the film community - François Truffaut and Robert De Niro.
When Truffaut wrote that "of all the film festivals in the world, Giffoni is the one we need most", the French film director showed how well he had understood the raison d'être of the entire project. It was not meant to be just a showcase of great films and famous guests, but an experience for the young participants, who were the real protagonists of the event.
The festival stands out because of its dynamic jury, made up of young people from the four corners of the globe.
Every year, in July, 2,000 children and adolescents from 36 different countries descend on Giffoni. All participants are expected to see, analyse, discuss and vote for the films in their particular category.
This year, the organisers saw over 1,000 films before choosing those to be presented to the young audience. Only the most poetic, the toughest and the most authentic were chosen.
Giffoni's films often focus on the turmoil experienced by young people in today's world.
This summer, the four Maltese students representing Malta were Graziella Orsini, Roberta Portelli, Ryan Farrugia and Pierre Louis Attard. They all returned knowing much more about film and keen on sharing their experience with their fellow students, the Istituto said.