After a long pause due to the pandemic, cinema returns to the spotlight in schools with the publication of three Calls for Proposals relating to the third National Plan for Cinema and Images in Schools, which has allocated €54 million for the 2022/2023 academic year. The goal is to boost knowledge and awareness of cinematographic and audiovisual language in schools of every level.
"With the National Plan for Cinema and Images, the history of cinema and its audiovisual language increasingly become part of the didactic offer as both educational and teaching tools used in the curricula," explained Lucia Borgonzoni, Undersecretary of State for Culture. During the press conference held this morning, she announced that the three calls for proposals would soon be published on the web platform www.cinemaperlascuola.it, which open from 14 March to accept applications. "The goal we have been working on - underlined Borgonzoni - is to bring young people closer to culture, to stimulate their skills in reading and decoding a language, that of cinema, through which to consider the world. Providing young people with the tools to access a heritage that everyone has always envied us is our duty as an institution, because it represents the intention to support their personal development, helping them to embark on new professional paths. It is a way of laying the foundations for the growth of a country, our country, with its sights firmly set on the future.”
The Plan is the result of the 2016 Cinema Law which, in collaboration with industry professionals, aims to facilitate the learning of cinema-related subjects and to boost cinema-related skills among students to provide them with the tools for mastering the techniques and media used in the production and distribution of images and sounds. In August 2021 the Ministries of Culture and Education signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding allocating resources of at least €12 million per year to implement the Cinema Law. Financial allocations from the previous two-year period left unspent due to the Covid pandemic have been added to the €36 million earmarked for the three-year period.
"Cinema and Audiovisual at School - Projects of National Importance", "Cinema and Audiovisual at School - Projects of Territorial Importance", "The Cinematographic and Audiovisual Language as an Object and an Instrument of Education and Training": these are the three calls for proposals launched to implement the activities envisaged by the National Plan for Cinema and Images in Schools and regulate the different macro areas of intervention. The goals include special support for school training and literacy projects, laboratory activities and audiovisual production, and also serious games, animation works and multimedia products. In addition, the Calls aim to promote the acquisition of cinematographic skills in teachers by setting up teacher training plans. Other projects include guides to understanding images and cinema and audiovisual products for students and teachers led by industry institutions and/or cinema theatres, as well as promotion and communication initiatives.
“A modern school, one that is up to date, must be increasingly open to interdisciplinarity and contamination between different languages because this will augment the range of tools we offer our children for use in accessing the world around them. Initiatives such as this increase young people's awareness of the correct use of audiovisual devices and are an opportunity to discover a talent, a vocation that can help identify the educational and training pathway that is best suited to them. The fact that the calls for proposals are being launched again after the pandemic storm is another sign that, fortunately, the state of emergency is now behind us," said Rossano Sasso, Undersecretary of State for Education.
The Calls for proposals will be published in the next few days on this website in the "Calls for proposals" section.