Beginning in 1988, The International Youth Film Festival in Bellinzona now brilliantly exceeds its twentieth anniversary, having firmly established itself as an annual date on the cinema calendar. The event focuses on a wide range of themes, attentive to the transformations of the world of youngsters, favoring neither easy, insubstantial or glamorous productions. The rich Castellinaria programme features both competitive and non competitive sections, open to school pupils and the public. In addition, the Festival offers retrospectives and exhibitions, conferences and meetings of varied kinds.