For the first time, the Giffoni Film Festival (#Giffoni55, July 17-26 in Giffoni Valle Piana) will feature a dedicated relaxation area for neurodivergent children and teenagers. This protected, reserved space aims to provide moments of tranquility and decompression during the festival’s intense days.
The initiative follows a memorandum of understanding signed between the Ente Autonomo Giffoni Experience and the Gruppo Asperger Campania. The shared goal is to make the festival experience increasingly accessible and respectful of individual differences.
Named “Quiet Place – Il luogo della calma” (The Place of Calm), this environment is designed to prevent and alleviate potential sensory overload situations, offering concrete, personalized support. The space features carefully chosen elements: enveloping furniture, natural materials, and calibrated lights and sounds tailored for those with hyper-reactive sensory profiles. It will include soft cushions, poufs, supportive armchairs, tactile and visual games, illustrated books, and noise-canceling headphones – all selected to ensure comfort, self-regulation, and relief.
Access to the Quiet Place will be reserved for jurors participating in the 2025 Giffoni edition who request it via a specific form sent to families, requiring certified diagnosis documentation. Pre-registration will allow optimal organization of the area and ensure services meet individual needs.
“Becoming human, as this year’s theme reminds us,” explained Claudio Gubitosi, Giffoni’s founder and director, “means knowing how to recognize and welcome diversity in all its forms. Sometimes, to truly become human, we must also overcome our own limits: in thoughts, actions, and choices. Creating the Quiet Place represents a cultural and emotional achievement for us. It results from attentive listening and the concrete will to build a place where every juror can feel safe, valued, and free to express themselves. Giffoni is, and will increasingly be, the home for all young people, no one excluded. With this project, we reaffirm our commitment to a festival truly open to all, where every juror feels welcomed, respected, and truly the protagonist of this emotionally intense experience.”
Tiziana Valeriani, Vice President and Salerno representative for the Gruppo Asperger Campania, emphasized: “Gruppo Asperger Campania is a parent association, active locally for years, focused mainly on family support and implementing concrete projects to combat the isolation our children are too often confined to. This room is just a first step, but it carries significant meaning: it symbolizes a festival opening with sensitivity to neurodivergence and choosing to embrace differences in ways of perceiving and being in the world.”
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