Fabrizio Piciarelli
All eyes were focused on youth at the fifth annual Fiuggi Family Festival (www.fiuggifamilyfestival.org), which took place at the medieval village of Fiuggi, the usual venue in Lazio, from July 25 to 29.
This year’s festival saw a great novelty–the creation of a second location, away from the Family Village, specifically dedicated to entertaining adolescents. The video game laboratory, after its experience in past years, had particular success. It was the true highlight of the event, set up under the auspices of AESVI, the National Association for Videogame. The laboratory was a permanent location where both big and small could have fun together, playing and previewing the newest game consuls.
In addition to the laboratory, the youth zone was enriched by an outdoor dance floor, the possibility to ride in a hot air balloon, a track for go-carts, performing street artists, live music, and lots of inflatable rides. Another great novelty was the openness to the world of 2.0, that is of the web and interactivity. The festival’s location was literally revolutionized with the launch of applications for iO systems (iPhone, iPod, and iPad). They provided updates, news, important information, reviews, and even a fun quiz with 150 questions about family films. All of this was of course communicated in real time through the main social networks.
As for the main event, the winning Film was La Fille du Puisatier, by Daniel Auteil. Other films in the contest included 33 Postcards by Pauline Chan, with Guy Pearche and Zhu Lin, and a special showing of The Amazing Spiderman, already available in national theatres since July 4. Like every year, there were several previews. Among them was the fourth chapter of the animated series Ice Age: Continental Drift, destined for sure success in the box office.
