Padua (Italy). On 29 March 2026, in Rome at the conference hall of the Voxon Studios in Cinecittà, during the closing evening of the 16th International Dante Festival (organized by the Xenia ETS Association and promoted by the Ministries of Culture and Education), students from Don Bosco Institute in Padua, part of Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello Triveneta Province (ITV), were awarded first prize in the under 20 Cinema Competition for their winning short film, “Catone e Noi”, which was screened alongside the other eight international finalist entries.
The festival involved over two thousand young people under the age of 30 from around the world, invited to reinterpret the imagery of Dante’s Divine Comedy through new forms of expression. The awards were presented by a jury chaired by the director Pupi Avati.
Conceived and produced by students, the video Catone e Noi stages an ideal passing of the torch between Dante’s Cato, the young Jan Palach, and the present day, exploring the sadly topical theme of the struggle for freedom. In 46 BC, Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger took his own life rather than live under Caesar’s dictatorship. During the Middle Ages, he became a symbol of the love for freedom and was placed by Dante as the guardian of Purgatory. In 1969, at the height of the Cold War, 21-year-old Czechoslovak student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire in protest against the Soviet tanks that were brutally crushing the Prague Spring. The narrative concludes with images of major struggles for freedom currently unfolding around the world.
The First Prize in the Under-20 Cinema Competition, supplemented by the award for Best Original Music, represents a recognition of the work of 17 students from the three high school tracks at “Don Bosco” Institute, who dedicated over two months to every phase of film production, during which they had the opportunity to share the set with professionals from the audiovisual industry.
Produced within the framework of the initiatives for Dantedì,—the national day dedicated to Dante Alighieri, established in 2020 to celebrate the legacy of the Supreme Poet and observed in Italy every March 25th, Don Bosco Institute’s film workshop offered a distinctive, critical, and contemporary approach to education. In this setting, young people take center stage in critical and cultural reflection, in sharing messages about life and for life, and in creative expression, with the aim of conveying positive ideas to their peers.
