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Culture as a tool of inclusion, cinema as a vehicle for social change and the valorization of talents as a concrete commitment are the values that have characterized the professional path of Paola Tassone, artistic director of the Tulipani di Seta Nera International Social Cinematography Festival, who on Monday 26 October was awarded the 2026 Donna d’Autore Award, aimed at personalities who have distinguished themselves in the different contexts of culture, society, professions, sport and civil commitment. The ceremony, hosted at Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome, was promoted and organized by Anna Silvia Angelini, hosted by the journalist Vittoriana Abate.
«I am deeply moved by receiving this award for its institutional value – said Tassone – and because it recognizes a path built with passion and determination, in the belief that culture and cinema can be concrete tools of inclusion and change. When we started talking about inclusion and valorization of diversity through cinema it was a gamble; today these themes are part of the cultural debate. For me this is not a point of arrival, but an incentive to continue giving voice to those who too often remain on the margins.” Biologist from Caulonia Marina, Paola Tassone has personified on a professional level the meeting between scientific training and artistic sensitivity, two apparently distant dimensions, which have found common ground in social cinema. On the one hand, attention to data, analysis and evidence; on the other, the ability of stories to restore complexity to human experiences and stimulate new perspectives.
«Research taught me to understand reality; social cinema gives it a voice” is the summary with which Tassone talks about the bond between the two souls of his professional experience. At the center of his artistic vision there is in fact a cinema capable of overcoming rhetoric and pietism, showing diversity and fragility not as limits, but as expressions of human complexity and uniqueness. It follows that the quality of a work is not only measured by its narrative solidity, but also by its ability to leave a mark on the viewer, questioning prejudices and stereotypes. Convictions that found their most significant expression in the conception and growth of Tulipani di Seta Nera, the International Festival of Social Cinematography, born in 2007 with the aim of promoting, through audiovisual language, through the short film tool, a culture attentive to inclusion, diversity and rights.
A challenge that was transformed into a structured cultural project, thanks to the vision shared with Diego Righini and the work of the association L’Università Cerca Lavoro, which produces the Festival and of which Righini is founder and president. A reality of great social value that today makes use of discussion and collaboration with important partners, such as Rai Cinema, Rai for ESG Sustainability and Rai Public Utilities. Among the winners of the 2026 Donna d’Autore Award, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior Wanda Ferro, the lawyer Anna Maria Bernardini de Pace and the singer-songwriter and presenter Silvia Salemi, from Syracuse from Palazzolo Acreide, who presides over the jury of #SocialClip at “Tulipani di Seta Nera”, the section of the festival dedicated to music videos on social topics.