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Italy Reads Student Video Contest

Student Video Contest

2024/2025 Winners

1st Place (500 Euro): Whispers from Gertrude's Salon by students in Class 5D, IIS Vincenzo Simoncelli, Sora (FR), (Prof. Venditti and Prof. Lanzi) 
2nd Place (300 Euro): Freedom by students at Liceo Scientifico Statale Galileo Galilei, Civitavecchia/Santa Marinella (RM), (Prof. Mangano) 
3rd Place (100 Euro): The Life of a Genius by students in Class 5C, IIS Vincenzo Simoncelli, Sora (FR), (Prof. Venditti and Prof. Airale) 
Honorable Mention for Best Comedy (most pizzazz!): The Life of Gertrude Stein (kinda) by students in Class 5E at Liceo Scientifico Statale “Giovanni Keplero”, Rome, (Prof. Ridolfi)
Honorable Mention for Best Visuals: Mapping Gertrude Stein  by students in Class 5L at IIS "Sulpicio", Veroli (FR), (Prof. Venditti and Prof. Mariani). 

Entering the Contest

High School students are encouraged to produce videos (3-minutes duration) that are inspired by the work of American literature selected as the focus of the current year's Italy Reads. Recurring themes and motifs found in literature provide a wealth of inspiration for the creativity of students. All participants involved in all aspects of a video that is submitted to this contest must be enrolled in the same high school.

Be creative! These videos can include original music videos, a dramatized scene from the text, a documentary considering the life and historical context of the author, or an impressionistic video in response to one of the themes are just a few ideas.

Preparing your video submission

Online resources
To further the educational value of this project, Italy Reads offers an online Video Production Tutorial (The Essential Guide to Video-Making) to registered participants upon request. Students are also invited to explore the resource and video tutorials available online. 

Peer-to-peer development of ideas
JCU students often meet with high school students to engage in discussions that help reach a greater understanding of the themes of the text and how to transfer that understanding into a video.

There can be no violation of copyright in the videos. Students are very strongly encouraged to consult documents such as The Video Pro's Guide to Video Copyright and Licencing, by Jon Tobin, or Bound By Law ©2006 Keith Aoki, James Boyle, Jennifer Jones for more information on how to respect intellectual property rights.

Italy Reads

Contest Rules

Video entries must be up to 3 minutes in duration and uploaded and made available to the general public (i.e. entered as "unlisted" and NOT as "private") on YouTube, Vimeo or other social media platforms. Insert the link to your video in the mandatory Italy Reads Video Contest Submission Form. Please delegate ONE Student Representative for each video to send the submission. Students should not send duplicate submissions for the same video. There is no limit to the number of unique videos a class can submit. Each video must be submitted using the Submission Form. Deadline to submit a video: 31 January.

Participation in the Student Video Contest constitutes acceptance, also by parental authorities of participating minors, of the terms authorizing John Cabot University to use the video and photos taken at the events. Fill in the Disclaimer/Liberatoria.

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