The festival was established by friends Nick Moretti and Dino Cesta in 2010, as a way of reconnecting with the culture of their immigrant parents, who settled in Newcastle and contributed not only to the workforce but to the changing composition of the city after World War II.
Sadly, Cesta passed away in 2015, a victim of motor neurone disease, a terminal condition in which the nerve cells controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow undergo degeneration and die.
Cesta was a much-loved member of the Newcastle community, and his public blogging about his four year fight with the terminal condition reached an audience around the world.
Cesta referred to MND as an acronym for Magnificent New Day and spoke of it as a blessing in disguise, an opportunity to step up to the occasion and raise awareness of the disease.
He was looked after until the end by his wife Anna, who had stage four breast cancer at the time and who stopped chemotherapy to improve her quality of life and be well enough to be her husband’s primary carer.
Sadly, Anna passed away this year following her battle with breast cancer.
In honour of both Dino and Anna Cesta, the Dino and Anna Cesta Memorial Scholarship will be awarded this year to a student from the Newcastle area who is studying a course in visual arts, film and television, or music and writing.
The winner will be announced on the opening night of the festival.
Last year’s Newcastle Italian Film Festival raised $15,000 for MND NSW.
The festival program this year includes much-loved films such as Troppo Napoletano (From Naples with Love) and La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful).
Cesta once described the festival “as an avenue of reminding people where they come from and not to lose that”.
“But this festival is not just for the Italian community,” he said.
“It’s for everyone.”
Tickets to the Newcastle Italian Film Festival are now on sale.
