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For the 56th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival (July 17–25, 2026), artistic director Luca Apolito unveils an image inspired by the myth of Icarus: an ancient symbol for those who dream of what does not yet exist
The countdown to the Giffoni Film Festival is well underway, with more than 5,000 jurors now ready to take part. Selected from over 40 countries and 500 Italian cities and towns, they will participate across the festival’s various sections. The program is steadily taking shape day by day, with premieres, special events, films in competition, and national and international talents being finalized.
At a time of profound difficulty for the world and for Italy – marked by uncertainty and a serious economic climate – Giffoni aims to represent possibility. The festival feels this responsibility more strongly than ever. For 56 years, it has served as a point of reference for families and young people, listening to their needs and building with them a path rooted in education, school, dialogue, sharing, presence, and growth. There is a clear awareness of the need for reassurance and stability, and a firm belief that from here can emerge a vital message of beauty and possibility.
It is in imagination that the impossible begins to yield. Only there does what the world has not yet seen take shape—what no one yet knows how to achieve. This idea lies at the heart of the visual identity for the 56th edition of the festival. Artistic director Luca Apolito turns to Icarus, a symbol that transcends centuries and continues to question the present, to embody this year’s theme: “The Impossible Things.”
At the center of the composition, a white figure rises upward, wings spread wide in a gesture that already suggests accomplished flight. The red surrounding it is not merely a background, but an emotional and symbolic space, charged with desire, challenge, upward drive, and risk. Some feathers detach and scatter—small fragments hinting at real danger—yet the motion continues. Because this Icarus’ flight is not only the story of a fall; it is, above all, the story of someone who dared to rise. In this momentum, in this stubborn will to try, Giffoni recognizes the spirit of new generations.
Below, almost imperceptible, stands a tree—a quiet presence evoking stability, the known world, the safety that Icarus chooses to leave behind. His is a solitary act, with no other figures, no protection. Attempting the impossible requires, first and foremost, a personal choice: the response to a deeply felt need, the courage to act. Yet the sun toward which he flies becomes a shared destination for all who dare to look upward. Only when that direction is collectively recognized does the solitary gesture become a shared breath—moving from “I” to “we,” from an individual dream to the patient and determined construction of possibility.
Beneath the figure appears a key element: the labyrinth. Not merely decorative, it serves as a narrative structure linking this image to the festival’s recent history. In 2025, Giffoni’s theme was “Becoming Human,” represented visually by a labyrinth—a complex path of detours, doubts, and choices, at whose center stood a question mark, symbolizing the inquiry inherent in every process of growth. In the 56th edition’s image, the labyrinth returns, but now becomes the starting point. After navigating complexity and asking questions, the next step is flight—imagination that looks beyond what is already known.
This transition—from labyrinth to flight, from question to action—also opens a reflection on the relationship between generations. “The story of Icarus is inseparable from that of Daedalus,” explains Luca Apolito. “The father builds the wings; the son flies. But Daedalus is not only a generous father. He is also a man who created both wondrous and dangerous things. He is the architect of the labyrinth, a product of his creativity and a mirror of his contradictions. The wings that allow Icarus to soar above the labyrinth are extraordinary tools, designed for freedom, yet marked by a limit the son must discover on his own, in flight. Icarus inherits all of this—ingenuity, wonder, and shadow. This, too, reflects the condition of today’s younger generations. They inherit powerful yet imperfect tools—technologies, cultural models, a planet bearing the marks of choices they did not make. And they must learn to fly nonetheless, with all of this, toward something that still has no name.”
“In recent months, through social media and news broadcasts, we have seen images of drones, missiles, and weapons crossing the skies in many parts of the world, bringing death and destruction. These same images reach the eyes of the youngest audiences,” adds Jacopo Gubitosi, the festival’s managing director. “For this reason, we chose to present a different image: a sky inhabited by a symbol of courage, responsibility, and freedom. Icarus is not a mindless drone, but a winged dreamer, endowed with sensitivity and intellect, visually recalling a universal symbol of peace—the dove. Looking up at the sky thus becomes, for us, a new starting point. We want to continue being a reason to believe more strongly in the present and the future, accompanying young people along the path of possible change.”
“The Impossible Things” is an invitation to imagine, to open new spaces—to attempt flight.
