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Giffoni marks a special anniversary today. Every November 20, the community celebrates #GiffoniDay, the date when, 56 years ago, the very first spark of what would become one of the world’s most influential youth film festivals was ignited. It was in 1970 that founder Claudio Gubitosi, then only eighteen, imagined an event dedicated entirely to children and teenagers — a vision that has since evolved into a major cultural institution promoting creativity, dialogue, and inclusion all year round.
As the celebrations unfold, Giffoni also announces a key date for young audiences worldwide: on November 25, applications will open on the Eventival platform for the festival’s youth juries — Elements +3, +6, +10, and Generator +13, +15, +18.
This year introduces a meaningful change: the debut of the Generator +15 section, which replaces the previous +16 category. After closely observing the fast-evolving world of Generation Z, Giffoni recognized that today’s fifteen-year-olds relate to more layered and challenging storytelling than ever before. The shift isn’t just about age brackets — it reflects a broader rethink of the cinematic narratives that resonate with young people, their questions, and their emotional landscapes.
The goal is clear: to offer films capable of speaking to today’s teenagers with honesty and depth, while acknowledging both their maturity and their need for stories that mirror their complex reality.
And on #GiffoniDay comes the announcement that shapes every edition: the theme for 2025 will be “The Impossible Things.”
“‘Impossible’ is a word that sounds like a barrier,” says Creative Director Luca Apolito. “Yet inside it lies a contradiction — it negates, but it also suggests what we haven’t yet learned to do, imagine, or believe. We chose to focus not on a single grand abstraction but on the many impossible things — big and small — that each of us encounters in everyday life.”
The theme stems from the reflections gathered during the 2024 edition, “Becoming Humans,” where thousands of young participants shared stories, uncertainties, and wishes. A question emerged repeatedly: What feels impossible for young people today?
This generation grows up immersed in constant information — climate change explained before they’ve studied it at school, wars reduced to fleeting clips, inequality compressed into a social feed. They know so much, yet often without the space to make sense of it. They carry a dual nostalgia: for what has already been lost, and for the future they fear may never fully arrive.
“Their uncertainty isn’t the same as in the past,” Apolito reflects. “The reference points are fewer, the paths less defined. It’s fragility, but also freedom — possibility taking shape in the unknown.”
“The Impossible Things” doesn’t ask young people to overcome the impossible, but rather to recognize it — to face what cannot be controlled, solved, or understood, and to find in that encounter a new kind of awareness. Listening, questioning, and imagining together become key tools in a world hungry for meaning.
Today, Giffoni is more than a festival: it is a year-round laboratory where young people from around the globe meet, speak, challenge each other, and discover shared visions of the future.
“The real question,” Apolito concludes, “is no longer just ‘What can’t I do yet?’ but ‘What have we not yet learned to do together?’ The shift from I to we is where the possible begins.”