The first edition of the Gaza International Festival for Women's Cinema came to an end on 31 October. "But we want to assure you that, from tomorrow onwards, we will begin preparations for the second edition," Ezzaldeen Shalh, founder, president and the tireless driving force behind the festival, announced to the audience. Having started on 26 October, in Deir al-Balah, where the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate offered up its headquarters in the heart of Gaza, the festival has indeed spoken to the heart of the world.

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The gathering went ahead despite the truce being merely nominal. It took place in defiance of dangers and limitations, while venues and processes were adapted and Israeli drones were monitored as they continued to destroy lives and reduce buildings to rubble. It happened despite the lorries carrying food, water and generator fuel being far too few and far between. It took place with means reduced to a bare minimum, thanks to an unwavering commitment to show dignity in remaining human and in claiming not only the right to life, but also the right to share culture. It unfolded amid screening suspensions and changes to venues and times, in order to maintain the safety of people attending the films. It took place to reaffirm that cinema, too, equates to resistance and life, and to assert the right to dream, to gather and to share moments of escape and reflection in front of a screen. But it took place - and this is the most important thing to remember.

It also took place thanks to a dense network of solidarity and mobilisation at the European level, from the European Women's Audiovisual Network to the Global Movement to Gaza, with many Italian organisations on the front line, ranging from the Audiovisual Archive of the Democratic and Labour Movement to Venice4Palestine. But above all, it took place thanks to the unyielding will of its director Ezzeldeen Shahl and his team. For this reason, on the initiative of Global Movement to Gaza and Venice4Palestine, a special award, the "Sumud" Prize, dedicated to Ezzaldeen Shalh and to all of the women who brought the festival to life, was conferred on 3 November at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence.

All in all, the festival proved to be a gesture reflecting strong political and human values: a bridge between cultures and peoples, a passing of the torch between those who tell stories to resist and those who resist by telling stories. It was an act of concrete solidarity that reaffirms cinema's most authentic mission: to dream, resist and transform reality. The red carpet unfurled among the ruins of Gaza even reached as far as the Festival dei Popoli in Florence.