In a globalized world cinema also tends to be global, but every country has its own culture, its own identity, a peculiar way of seeing the world and life. These differences in human experiences are a treasure that must be valued.

Our festival wants to reward those productions that highlight significant aspects of local or national cultures. We talk about “inter-culture” that is the relationship between two or more cultures characterized by the mutual enrichment of values, customs, and traditions. This idea goes beyond the simple coexistence between different cultures in the same place (multiculturalism). For those who want to better understand this crucial point, I recommend reading a famous speech by a genius writer: “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace. This is a quote:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

We ask you to pay a little attention here because often the authors do not realize that they are expressing particular aspects of their culture of origin and therefore they cannot always evaluate with certainty their works are consistent with the theme of the festival.

However, it is not so difficult. If your film concerns issues such as relationships between men and women, education, adolescence, aging, illness, solidarity, violence, friendship, the relationship with nature or others broad themes like these, you can be sure that it reveals important aspects of your belonging culture even if it seems to you to be universal and objective. So try it with confidence: you might have a nice surprise.

Finally, the festival will take place in Venice, a city that for all its thousand years of history has based its fortune and its beauty precisely in its ability to be intercultural to the highest degree.

We will continue this tradition by creating a vibrant, stimulating environment open to all kinds of discoveries.