The story
Castellinaria Bellinzona in Bellinzona
Castellinaria is Bellinzona's autumn festival for young-audience cinema, running since 1987 with features and shorts chosen for schoolchildren, teenagers and families rather than a general festival crowd. Screenings fill cinemas across the old town each November, often followed by conversations with visiting directors and animators. Held in Ticino, Switzerland's Italian-speaking canton, it mixes school-morning matinees with weekend family sessions, giving visitors a quieter, more focused alternative to the country's bigger genre festivals.
Castellinaria began in 1987 as a modest screening series and grew into one of Ticino's principal film events, built specifically around young audiences rather than a general arts crowd.