17/11/2003

The 2003 edition of the Castellinaria International Festival of Young Cinema is currently underway in Bellinzona and will be continuing until November 22. The event still isn’t very well known outside Switzerland, but it aims to introduce young audiences to some of the best film works around. It started up in 1988 as the Bellinzona Children’s festival and changed its name to “Castellinaria” in 1998, when Giancarlo Zappoli became the event’s new artistic director.

Last year Castellinaria introduced two official competitions, and this year there were around 10 films competing, including Little Girl Blue [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the Swiss filmmaker Anna Luif and Fame Chimica by Paolo Vari and Antonio Bocola, a minority share Swiss production, which had its national premiere at the festival. The winning films will be chosen by two juries made up of children and teenagers, who will award the Golden, Silver and Bronze Castle prizes, as well as the Three Castles award to the Best Director. Castellinaria will also be presenting a selection of films out of competition which have done well at other international festivals, as well as special screenings and retrospectives. As part of the bi-centenary of the entry of the Ticino Canton into the Swiss confederation, this year’s retrospective will pay tribute to filmmakers born in the region and who have shot their films in Switzerland, or outside national boundaries: Renato Berta, Carlo Varini, Bruno Soldini, Teco Celio, Esmé Sciaroni, Villi Hermann and Bianca Conti-Rossini.

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(Translated from French)