The Cristoforo Colombo Rotary Club, chaired by Silvia De Mari, awarded the 2024 Silver Caravella award. The prestigious award is assigned every year to associations or individuals who have distinguished themselves for their social commitment and for the activities carried out in the name of inclusion and solidarity and commitment to the diffusion of culture and shared values with Rotary. Among the winners was the Moscerine film festival, an event that gives space to young directors aged 0 to 12. In her introduction, the President of the Rotary Club Cristoforo Colombo praised the actions undertaken by the festival to become increasingly universal, from the use of sign language to alternative augmentative communication, underlining the attention to the weakest groups such as children in pediatric hospitals who were able to vote on the short films of their peers.
Nina Baratta (Artistic Director of the Moscerine film festival) instead talked about the path of the Moscerine APS association, founded in 2014 to bring art and creativity into the lives of children and families. After various experiences with the creation of an art academy for children, we felt the need to create a valuable space where we could share with the community the extraordinary short films made by children. Thus was born – together with the organizational support of the film and television production companies Tadàn Produzioni, Cleverage and Smile Vision – the Moscerine Film Festival.
In three years of existence, the festival has seen exponential growth, with the participation of personalities from the world of cinema and entertainment such as Luciana Littizzetto, Claudio Amendola, Claudia Gerini, Gabriele Mainetti, Mussi Bollini. It has also led hundreds of children and many schools to discover the secrets of cinema and has been able to award young directors prestigious prizes such as the airing of the short film on Rai Kids. The Cristoforo Colombo Rotary club wanted to deliver the Silver Caravel to the Moscerine APS association, for which the President Francesca Batayneh, the Artistic Director and creator of the festival Nina Baratta and the founding member of the Moscerine APS Valentina Merico were present. Also awarded was the President of Tadàn Produzioni, co-producer of the MFF, Federica Alderighi. The President of the Cristoforo Colombo Rotary Club, Silvia De Mari, concluded the evening with a phrase that the Gnats will always carry in their hearts: “Each of us is born with wings, but to become Gnats we must learn to fly”.