Today, books, with their narrative genres and subgenres, are part of a vast media ecosystem that goes beyond the shelves of bookstores and libraries. In the current cross-media universe, literary texts, comics, TV series, animations, films, and even videogames can all be considered alternative entry points into the same narrative world.
Well-known examples include Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the heroes of Marvel and DC Comics, which children and young people often come to know not through the primary texts (in this case, novels and comics) but rather through cinematic, television, and videogame adaptations and expansions. Books are thus just one of the ways in which beloved stories reach their audiences, even though they often represent the most authentic core and the starting point for development into cross-media franchises.
Aware of these changes and the generative role that the publishing industry often plays in the cross-media storytelling ecosystem, in 2021 the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in collaboration with the Mamamò association, established the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award. The goal is to highlight the narratives most capable of sparking migrations, intersections, or expansions across various platforms, such as television and cinema screens, video game consoles, mobile devices, and smart speakers. An international jury awards the prize and special mentions to projects that most effectively adapt or expand original narratives into different media languages. Participation in the award is free and open to publishers, IP owners, authors, developers/producers, and other stakeholders involved in the project’s realization.
If you want to apply for the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award, please click to this link.
In addition to the CrossMedia Projects category, the award also includes a second category of entries: Digital Reading Experiences. These are applications, platforms, content libraries, or editorial series that convincingly and creatively translate the reading experience for children and young people into the digital realm.
Read here the regulations for the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award.
Over the years, the jury has identified and awarded outstanding projects that expand the boundaries of reading and offer new meanings to stories. These include the 3D animated short The Snail and the Whale, which, inspired by the beautiful illustrations by Axel Scheffler accompanying Julia Donaldson’s rhyming text, recreates enchanting and realistic marine ecosystems. Another example is Les quatre nouvelles saisons d’en sortant de l’école, a French project aimed at introducing young people to poetry by adapting the works of four great authors (De Roy, Tardieu, Verlaine, and Chedid) into animated shorts, which in turn serve as a starting point for the elegant print volume published by Thierry Magnier. Lastly, there is Sam & Julia. The Mouse Mansion, a Dutch project originating from a dollhouse inhabited by anthropomorphic felt mice and encompassing an animated series and a book collection.
The BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award thus explores the cross-media potential of contemporary narratives for children and young people, emphasizing their vital connections to the world of books and publishing. It does so with a global, inclusive perspective, attentive to both productions tied to established IPs and independent endeavors, as long as a good story remains at the heart of it all.
