We learn through field experience, observation, imitation, trial and error: this is what pedagogy claims. But when learning remains confined to school desks and lacks direct contact with the outside world—that vital encounter with the human element—how can we pass the knowledge circulating in the world on to the young? How can we tell distant stories, or impress on the skin what a textbook fails to express? The answer is cinema. And the Ennesimo Film Festival believes in it.
Once again this year, the numbers speak for themselves: 3 regions involved, 400 classes, and almost 7,000 students, from preschool to upper secondary school. This is the milestone reached by the Ennesimo Academy for the 25/26 school year, the film education project born in 2016 in Fiorano Modenese which started with only eight classes. Thanks to the support of institutions, organizations, and partners who share our vision, the project has grown to acknowledge cinema as an excellent educational tool, capable of promoting inclusion and overcoming cultural and educational barriers.
In addition to bringing new generations closer to the “seventh art,” the Academy’s goal is to stimulate young spectators’ critical thinking and awareness. Building a good story requires collective effort, and we believe that the way in which we look at the world also requires teamwork. Through theoretical courses and practical workshops, students learn to interpret the visual stimulations they experience every day, engaging in dialogue with one another.
This year, the project includes over 3,000 hours of lessons, involving Emilia-Romagna (with 12 Municipalities between Modena and Cesena), Marche (Recanati, Loreto, and Castelfidardo), and Puglia (Modugno), where a series of video contents were created to narrate the local communities.
Audiovisual education thus becomes a means to understand reality and oneself, questioning one’s daily life and what seems distant, ultimately building personal thought. For ten years now, integrating image education into the traditional school system has made it possible to stimulate dialogue and emotion—and not just in the classroom. Our commitment lies in taking students beyond school walls, allowing them to get truly hands-on: experimenting, filming, and editing. The students produce real short films in a journey that culminates at the Ennesimo Film Festival. Here, through dedicated screenings, juries, masterclasses, and meetings with film professionals, the young participants become protagonists. Actual filmmakers.
Ennesimo Academy believes that cinema is a fundamental part of learning and chooses to place it at the center; because it is an indispensable, necessary, shared, and living resource. Not just the “umpteenth” one.
Not just another one.