Our young jurors from Qatar, currently soaking up the Giffoni Film Festival, wrote to us from Italy. It’s the longest and largest film event for children internationally. They are watching movies, reviewing them, attending classes and hanging out with the stars!

Here are their thoughts and tips:

Abdulla Al Kuwari – 16

I’ve travelled thousands of miles, from East to West, to be a part of a film festival in Italy – but it wasn’t a normal film festival. There is a mixture of cultures here.

Little kids and youth from all over the world gathered here in the name of film; me and my friends Laith and Loay are representing our country Qatar and our main mission is to judge films. I feel like I need to observe every good bit of information to build a great film industry in Qatar.

We had the chance to meet jurors from different countries and cultures; they introduced their countries and culture to us and we introduced ours. We found that there are lots of commons things between cultures and that what made us close to each other more and more.

During the festival, Ramadan came up and we made a big Iftar feast and invited all the Arab countries with China, South Korea, Portugal, Tunisia and Italy.

Every juror and all the talents were interested in hearing us talk about Qatar and our culture.

For example, we met Nicholas Cage and I asked him about how I can get the people in the film industry. He said they should know that the film is a message to the world. When I met Jean Reno, he was very excited and happy about working with Arab directors. And for Diana Agron, she said that she would come to the Middle East :-) !

I think that it is a great experience for me to get friends from all over the world. What I really found is that the world is expecting films from Qatar.

Laith Hammad – 18

My week in Giffoni is a dream come true.

It’s an impressive youth event that draws a smile on my face now and will continue to do for some time.

We are here to get experience and transfer it to my beloved country Qatar.
Secretly that’s the point of any film festival; it’s really not about the films but rather about the atmosphere and the culture. It’s the movie culture, a culture that knows no countries.

First of all the culture in Italy is so rich. The pizza is nothing like I expected! Personally, I enjoyed the conversations about films, sometimes more than the films themselves.
It’s always fun to listen to people who have hugely different opinions, listen to them and still have my own.

“Barbie” by director Sang-Woo Lee was my favourite. Before you judge, it’s not actually about Barbie.

It’s a touching story about a father who has to buy the life of a stranger to save the life of his own daughter. The plot is deep.

We met the director. He was young and we laughed as he told us why he named the movie Barbie. To our surprise it was simple. Barbie represents America.

The movie raises a very sensitive issue. Could you kill a stranger to save a loved one?

It’s always amazing to love something and share it with others. That brings ‘happiness’, which is the theme of this 42nd edition of Giffoni.

If there were three things that I learnt from meeting three very big stars (Nicolas Cage, Jean Reno and Dianna Agron) it’s to never give up on your dreams, stay honest and do what makes you happy.

Loay Hammad – 14

Hi this is Loay Hammad and I have three tips for you so you can become a good juror.

The first one is to listen to different opinions. The second is never add your opinion when interviewing a celebrity. The final one is to always smile so that you will get a good answer.

I have met a lot of celebrities and they are really friendly with us. They are really happy to meet us.