Launched in Italy in 1997, Religion Today is an annual film festival dedicated to promoting interreligious dialogue through films.
An itinerant festival, it was held this year in the city of Trent from 14-26 October 2011 and revolved around the theme: Poverty: A Problem or an Opportunity?-tackling the subject from not only its social dimension but even more from its cultural, spiritual, ethical and theological aspects, since these involve religion more directly and could be an opportunity for deepening interreligious dialogue.
The Religion Today Film Festival celebrated its 14th “birthday” this year with a 50% increase in movies submitted to compete for its “Best Film of the Year” award. 290 films, sent in from every part of the world, allowed the coordinating team to select 66 especially interesting movies from 26 different countries as finalists in the contest. The films approach the issue of poverty from the Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Buddhist and Animistic perspectives.
Once the selection committee had narrowed down the field of competitors, an international and interreligious panel of judges proceeded to view the movies and award “best film” prizes in four categories: the film that best conveys a spirit of faith; best film according to subject; best documentary and best short film.
The Religion Today Film Festival also includes a “Workshop in Living Together” for all its participants, who are film workers and professionals from a wide variety of religious denominations and cultural backgrounds.
The purpose of the workshop is to help everyone learn to esteem each religion’s differences so as to overcome religious stereotyping and promote a positive approach to diversity that easy labeling can neither ignore nor suppress.