[ATTENTION: Babel is a festival entirely dedicated to cinema spoken in minority languages. If it is not possible to indicate the minority language through the drop-down menu in the registration form of your film, it is necessary to indicate the minority language in the synopsis of the film that you intend to register]
DEFINITIONS
A) With “Minority or Regional Languages” we mean the ones that are: 1) traditionally spoken by people living in an area of a Country, who are numerically inferior to the rest of the people of said Country, and 2) are different from the official language/s of that Country; this/these does/do not include the language/s and dialect/s spoken by migrant people.
B) With “area in which a regional or minority language is spoken” we mean a geographical area where the language is historically and traditionally present;
C) With “languages lacking a territory” we mean those languages, spoken by citizens of a Country, that are different from the language/s spoken by the rest of the citizens living in the same Country but that, even if they are traditionally spoken in the Country, are not linked to a precise geographical area (European Chart of the Minority or Regional Languages, 1992)
For the purposes of this competition:
a) we are open to all minority languages and dialects spoken by people whose languages do not have a Country of their own, i.e. they are not official languages of Countries other than those in which the film is shot;
b) dialects and sign languages are also considered minority languages.
THEMES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FILMS
Participation is free and open to all works without any constraint as to year of production, genre, theme, format or technique, whether distributed in cinemas or on the home-video market in Italy or abroad, whether published or unpublished. The only conditions for participation are the language of the texts and dialogues, which must be an expression of a linguistic, cultural or social minority. The minority language must be present in at least 50% of dialogues and texts for the Official Section (see art. 5).
If the minority language is present in less than 50%, the film may be admitted, at the sole discretion of the BabelFF Commission, to the Collateral Sections (see art. 5).
In the Official Section and in the Collateral Sections the following distinctions will be recognised
- Fiction short film (not longer than 45 minutes)
- Documentary short film (not longer than 45 minutes)
- Feature film both documentary and fiction (longer than 45 minutes)
Works that present hybrid characteristics between documentary and fiction will be assigned, at the discretion of the BabelFF Commission, to the type of documentary or fiction.
The works must be subtitled preferably in Italian or alternatively in English. Films not subtitled in Italian must be accompanied by srt files of the dialogues in English, French or Spanish.
SECTIONS
The Babel Film Festival is organized in two sections: “Official Section” and “Collateral Sections”. The assignment of films to the collateral sections is established by the BabelFF Commission (see art. 8)
OFFICIAL SECTION
The official section consists of films selected by the BabelFF Commission and submitted to the judgment of the official jury – called Babel Jury – for the awarding of the three main prizes, called “Mistral Prizes”. Only films in which the minority language is present for at least 50% of the dialogues and texts (see art. 4) can participate in this section. The Babel Jury will award the following prizes (see distinctions defined in art.4):
Mistral” award for best feature film;
Mistral” award for best documentary short film;
Mistral” award for best short fiction film.
COLLATERAL SECTIONS
The side sections are sections made up of specific juries that may also evaluate films in which the minority language is present in less than 50% of the dialogues and texts (see art. 4). The allocation of films to the side sections is decided by the BabelFF Commission (see art. 8).
The juries of the side sections will award the following
DIRITTO DI PAROLA prize, awarded by high school students in Cagliari;
ITALYMBAS prize, awarded by popular juries of Italian linguistic minorities to films spoken in minority languages protected by Law 482/1999;
UNICA Città di Cagliari prize, awarded by the students of the University of Cagliari;
ONE WOR(L)D prize, awarded by a delegation of migrants present in Sardinia;
MY CULTURE prize, awarded by the MyCulture+ team; UMANITARIA award, awarded by the members of the Società Umanitaria offices in Italy;
PREMIO OSTANA – SCRITTURA IN LINGUA MADRE prize, awarded by a jury of members chosen by the school itself;
FICC Audience Award, awarded by the jury composed of the FICC Film Clubs;
AAMOD prize, awarded by the Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico of Rome;
FEDIC prize, awarded by the Cineclub Fedic of Cagliari;
DIARI DI CINECLUB prize assigned by the jury of the online magazine Diari di Cineclub.