“In the name of your daughter” by Giselle Portenier wins the Amnesty International Award at Giffoni Film Festival 2019. The exciting film, which is deeply impressive for the social issue it deals with, fights against female genital mutilation.
The award is dedicated to the memory of Vera Manco, the Amnesty Italy activist who died prematurely in 2019, with the following citation: “The accurate direction delves deeper into the atrocity of female genital mutilation, and explores the stirrings of hope felt by the young protagonist women and those taking care of them. Moreover, this film underlines the importance of the right to education and knowledge as the highest form of emancipation”.
The Amnesty Award Short 2019 - now in its 10th edition and dedicated to Lorenzo Cerrato, Amnesty Italy activist who prematurely died in 2018 – goes to Italian short “New neighbours” by Andrea Mannino, Sara Burgio and Giacomo Rinaldi, because it talks about racial discrimination in a simple and light way. In this sense, its message can be conveyed to viewers of all ages and teaches that none of us is really immune from prejudice except for children who can look beyond it and be free”.
Three more prizes are awarded as part of “Start the Change”, the project that launched in October 2017 and involved 12 European countries in its film competition. “More than 150 films arrived from all over Europe – explains Start the Change Project Coordinator Gianni Cappellotto – we selected 50 of them and picked 5 finalists. The winners are only 3. We wanted to collect ideas, hope, European youth future expectations about important issues, such as sustainability and the development of further goals to achieve when it comes to the immigration issue”.
“Where it take us” (Austria) by Anna Geigenberger ranked third. Two youth coming from Spain, Daniel Ye Xie and Manuel Viedema Perez, finished second with their short “Landfill (Vertedero)”. The winner is “NIda” (Alepsa) by Adrianna Winiarska.
