European Children's Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse

The 2nd Conference of International Children's Film Festivals in Europe

Krems/Austria, September 1998

Short statements by representatives from production, direction, world sales agency, festival organisation, distribution, journalism, cinema owners and children jury members

Bernd Neuburger, Film Director (Vienna/Austria)

As one can observe, children films have vanished as a part of the program of most TV-stations over the last coupie of years due to a reason commonly heard, namely that there is not enough room for long films anymore. They have also disappeared from cinemas, because there are supposedly not enough films, for children and thus it's impossible to continuously attract an audience. They also gradually disappear from the competition of children's film festivals. Thus, as children films can hardly be found on TV-screens, cinema screens and film festivals any more, the media inevitably neglects them, which consequently has a negative effect on the interest of the public. Since it is absurd for a capitalist society to supply a market when there is no demand, fewer film are being produced and consequently shown, which has a negative effect on ... and so on and so on....

The role Children's Film Festivals play in this death spiral is not unimportant. lf one takes a look at the catalogues of International Children's Film Festivals of the last couple of years, one realizes that everything passes for a children film as long as a) the film includes a child and b)the film is a cartoon. A lot of these movies were not originally intended for children. Mostly, these film have the purpose of recollection:
the director tries to recollect his own childhood but does not loose the adult target group out of sight and thus does not spare with sex and crime. As 6 to 10 year olds don't know what to do with movies like that, the age for children that are in juries of festivals has been risen to appr. 15 years.- Obviously “baby-films” for 6 to 10 year olds have no chance in these juries.

Since Bruno Bettelheim was outet as a child molester, children apparently do not need fairy- tales any more but informative discussions on AIDS, cancer and death – in order to let them know what to expect from life. The knowledge that children do not deal with events rationally but intuitively has unfortunately been lost and with it also a child-adequate way to handle topic like illiness, loss and death, a way that uses archetypes rather than rational information. lf one takes a look at the programs of most children's film festivals, one has to be afraid that the knowiedge about the phenomenon child is thrown back in a pre-Jung era, in other words: a child is nothing but a small, emotionally and physically underdeveloped adult.

Children's Film Festivals can help children films to get out of the trouble by focusing on the basic function of the children film and make this function the primary criterion for selecting films at a festival. This would increase the prestige of these film genre and the media cannot overlook children films any longer which translates into more interest of the public and, hopefully, more subsidies, which consequently means more and, due to a higher number of competitors, better children films.

Eszter Voujala, Festival Director (Oulu/Finland)
What are my expectations from a Children's Film Director?

The director should not be ashamed of having made a children's film - some directors think, calling their film a children's film is somehow degrading
lf they have already decided to make a children's film, they should keep in mind, that they make the film for children.
They should know their audience: children are very demanding, they should not be underestimated
There should be action in a children's film, tension, humour, sentiments and some message – all these in proportion
Please, directors, give children some hope in the end (there are some otherwise good films, but we can't screen them to a young audience, because they are too heavy – even the most tragic films can be balanced so, that if not a Happy End but SOME HOPE IN THE END is given)
There are certain taboos in children's films – in different-cultures, different taboos. The taboos of children's films are: sex, violence, drugs and drinking. Directors can be confronted with the teachers, who oppose these taboos – sometimes very violently
Americans like the term: FAMILY FILM. lt means, that you want to please the whole big family: grandmother, father, brother, etc. there is only one problem: is the child forgotten? Why not to make a film for the child? Good children's films are eternal, new children are born every day – a common knowledge – a good children's film can very easily become a classic.
Today's film directors must keep in mind that their audience was brought up by the nanny called VIDEO. Today's children are and have always been surrounded by products of visual arts. They have very refined taste and great expectations.
However, it is not enough to use the latest technical achievements, it is an honest script you need as well.
Working with child-actors is very difficult. A director of a children's film must have the patience and all psychological and pedagogical abilities for this work.
Directors should visit screenings, where their young audience is present. Children's film festivals are important, because filmmakers can face their audience. Children are also interested in these occasions.
Last but not least: a good children's film is a good film, that has many levels. Children understand of it, what is for them and adults can also watch it, becausse there is some important message in it like: try to preserve the child in yourself

Marina Hughes, Film Producer (Dublin, Ireland)
A considerable body of theoretical work has been developed in the area of children and the media in spite of cinema's relatively short career as dominant cultural form.
Much of the research in this field is concerned with the familiarity of and ease of access to film and television media and the consequent 'dangers' to which children are seen to be powerful forces in children's socialisation.

This notion of negative media effects has tended to dominate published research. However it is challenged by research which stresses the diversity which children themselves bring to the media, their capacity to make sense of media messages and relate them to their own life experiences.

The volume of film being produced and the proportion of time which children spend viewing this product draw attention to the need to develop children's understanding of the medium. It is important that children develop visual literacy so that they can decipher the codes and conventions as well as genre and narrative of visual media.

It is against this background that Children's Film Festivals make a significant contribution to the spread of film appreciation among young People.

The Festival provides a forum for producers, directors, sales agents and distributors to discuss, define and develop their product for their target market. The Festival, through screenings, workshops and seminars, helps educate the film-maker's current and potential audience about his/her product. However, and perhaps more importantly, it educates the film-maker about his/her audience. And being a producer, to know your audience, is to survive.

The value of the Festival to the producer is potentially huge. However the relationship between the producer and the festival is underdeveloped and often fraught.

From a producers point of view – as the current structures stand – when the excitement of physically making a film is over, and the distribution rights have already been sold (often to finance the film in the first place) – and while you are trying to earn your living by developing other scripts) you are the person who is contacted by every festival or the circuit over a period of years to provide copies of photographic stills, and videocassettes, to fax dialogue lists and scripts and to ship prints – and for what? – to help fill a festival programme? To help get the director a free ticket for a weekend away in a nice location to be wined and dined?

The Boy from Mercury – a film which I produced 3 years ago, came about because of a chance meeting between the writer and the producer at a childrens film festival (Cinemagic in Belfast)

Nonmarket childrens film festivals provide a relatively intimate atmosphere for a gathering – and film production is built on relationships. Not only the relationship between the writer, the director and the producer and the creative team – but also and just as importantly, the relationship between European producers, potential co-producers, financiers and agencies.

This latter set of relationships is critical for the survival of European Childrens film and minority language film in the current era of the dominance in the commercial space of mass marketed American/English language big budget exceeds the films budget and the distribution hegemony guarantees screen space for the studios product.

If European childrens films are to continue to be produced (never mind screened) my plea to this conference is to please involve producers in the festival network. Both sectors (the production sector and the festival sector) need to develop this symbolic relationship.

The festival must not overtook its potential as a forum, for all involved in getting an idea from the page to the screen, to discuss, define and develop this product in this certain era.

Jerzy Moszkowicz, Festival Director (Poznan/Poland)
As the organiser of the International Festival of Films for Children ALE KINO I would like to draw your attention to this event and to express my best will to present your films to the audience, critics and representatives of audio-visual industry in my country.
The Festival creates the new spaces for the exhibition of the children´s films in Poland. This means that we will do our best to promote your product and, hopefully, to facilitate your sales.
The Festival is at your service. Please, note that this service is free of charge.
To make our further collaboration better, I would like to kindly ask you:

to response to our invitation to the Festival, even if the answer is negative;
to answer all the questions given in the entry forms and send all the requested materials; do not hesitate to provide us with information and materials not requested, if you consider them useful for us; all of this should be sent by the deadline speciefied in the Festival regultions;
not to charge the Festival either with the screenings or for the transport of the films to Poznan;
to provide the Festival with the prints of the films with due advance, as you are advised in the entry form;
and last but not least to be co-operative and open to discuss all the problems that we may encounter working together
Please, do not hesitate to present all your needs and suggestions regarding the exhibition and promotion of your films at the Festival.

Jochen D. Girsch, Sales Agent (Brussels/Belgium
As a World sales company, our expectations regarding Children's Film Festivals are as follows (some of them are specific to Children's Film -Festivals, others are more general)

finding a larger audience for these very fragile creations of the 7th art.
a 'great'campain by Film Festival Organizer's to motivating not only the great public, but also professionals, i.e. Press, Buyers (theatrical, television, video) to take part in the Festivals.
hoping to receiving at least two/three weeks in advance a list of professionals expected, if possible with address / phone / fax-datas.
expecting the Film Festivals to be more reliable regarding booking, shipping etc. The producers and we cannot afford all the costs regarding the print's travelling around the world.
expecting a better- 'feed-back' about thc publics reaction after the screenings
Due to the number of Film Festivals we must be sure to have the material (i.e.prints/photographs/dialogue-lists etc,) immediately returned or being forwarded to the next Film Festival, which is waiting desperately for that material.
Very often, after Festival's have closed, there seem to be nobody responsible for any replies to our phone-calls/faxes regarding the where about of the the mentioned stuff.
it would be a luxury to receive a list/tape of the voice-over versions the Film Festival has produced in accordance with the copyright- laws. This would maybe give the opportunity to encourage some local initiatives to show foreign-language films to children: let's mention one Belgian example : on Saturday mornings, in a citycentre theatre, two films are screened: one for the parents, one for the kids. The film for the kids is monitored by a person who reads the subtitles list.

This is of course limited. One can imagine at a rather low cost to have this voice over recorded on tape, and a number of tape recorders rent/or lent to the younger audience, still unable to read the subtitles.

Felix Vanginderhuysen, Distributor (Brussels/Belgium)
One of the reasons for a distributor to visit children film festivals is the need to feel the audience, the reaction, the special needs of the children, for getting to know what they like most, what films they prefer to see, what films they enjoy most.

Often these films are not identical with the films that are awarded by the jury. And this is the reason why distributors are not feeling comfortable with an award dedicated especially to a national distribution. The awarded films are selected because of their artistic value, but that does not mean that they would be successful in the commercial cinemas. There are various criteria – one surely is that the jury does not have to respect the rules of the market, they simply have to stick to aesthetical criteria.

So one of the demands the distributors have – please choose an adequate jury for the distribution award.

Martin Blaney, Journalist (Munich/Germany)
This week, I was at the European Film Forum in Strasbourg where professionals from all over Europe were discussing the future of European cinema. One of the workshops – on distribution and promotion – concluded with a recommendation encouraging „continued support“ from the European Union for festivals as they play an essential role in the promotion of European cinema in the light of the fact that European films have problems travelling outside of their national borders.

A study of festivals by the European Audiovisual Observatory presented at the Forum shows that there has been a literal explosion in the number of film festivals: the European Commission estimated 800 in the 15 member states last year.

The number of festivals may be growing, but the editorial space given over to cinema in newspapers is not increasing correspondingly. In fact, as many film critic colleagues attest, the space is shrinking year by year. (I am an exception here as my newspaper, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL, is dedicated exclusively to reporting to the film, television an video industries on a weekly basis).

Editors are not prepared to pay for their film critics to travel to festivals or will only cover part of the stay at a festival. And my British colleague Derek Malcolm of The Guardian has observed that editors are increasingly more interested in star-based profiles than in serious film reviewing. If the critics are to persuade their bosses to send them to cover a festival, it is imperative that festivals ensure that they develop a clear and unmistakable profile and offer journalists a chance to make discoveries.

Festivals have not been spared public cost-cutting measures and there is less money to go around these days, but the offer of accommodation or help with travel costs to the festival can make that important difference when a (freelance) journalist is deciding between the many festivals being staged each month.

Here are a few points for festival organisers to consider vis-a-vis their relations with the media:

Beware of charging fees for press accreditation and catalogues – the introduction of a DM 50 accreditation fee at the Berlin Film Festival created a lot of bad blood between the festival and the press, and you run the danger of the journalists using more space in their articles to write about this deteriroration of their working conditions than about the films themselves.
The need to send out press releases about your festival's programme in good time as some magazines have a long lead-time – especially if they only appear monthly.
It is useful for journalists coming from outside to have a room at the festival centre where they can have access to a pay telephone and fax as well as a computer or typewriter.
Often, it is not possible to stay at a festival for the whole duration and so there is inevitably a danger that one will miss some interesting films showing once one has returned home. This is where the Videotheque comes in – a service which will also be welcomed by distributors, exhibitors and sales agents.
A festival's catalogue is a very useful reference work after the festival has finished: for everyone involved...from journalists through to other festivals. It is also a concrete record for the filmmaker that his film was shown at the festival. Please make sure that you include the addresses, telephone and fax numbers of the production companies and/or sales agents – this will add to the value of the catalogue.

Maria and Antonia, Children's jury
Just a little while ago we wanted to watch a good film. So we asked ourselves: Remember, where we have watched all these fantastic movies? At the Children's Film Festival we answered ourselfes!

The films not only dealt with important topics, but also showed these topics in a way different from what we usually see in the cinema or on TV.

The Film Festival was an opportunity to get to know different cultures and thus to understand them better. There were stories about outsiders, about war and about friendship.

These films were a very important experience for us and we hope that we have the possibility to visit the Children's Film Festival more often.

Sabine Fuchs, Festival Director (Graz/Austria)
What do I as a organizer of a children Film Festival Expect from a Cinema Owner- Besides the fact, that I naturally expect the cinema to provide a perfect organisation concerning the ticket sale and a first rate screening, the festival time should be the time and cinema the place to discuss different experiences – based on the shown films.
In the first place the children have to be respected as partners not as consumers and treated with respect. So it is necessary, that the staff of the cinema should cooperate and communicate with the children without prejudices. The atmosphere of the cinema should be an inviting one. An invitation to stay and discuss. An invitation to watch with interest.
If the cinema owner him/herself is interested in the children films as a media transporting values, aesthetic forms and not to forget joy, the basement for a partnership is layed.
There are many things the cinema could provide for the young audience

space for special activities before and after the film – drawing, discussions, plays.
Music the children like
Pads to sit higher
Employees who like and enjoy being with children and know how to meet their needs and behaviour without being annoyed.
the cinema should be a place where regularly children films are shown, the cinema should be established as known place for screenings of children films.

The children audience will be the later adult audience and wether they will have a special interest in films that depends on the way we guide them now.

Harry Peters, Festival Director (Amsterdam/Netherlands)
Some people think that a filmfestival and the medium television are its opposites and there might be a reason for. A festival tries to raise the interest for a special filmart with young people and those adults who are professionally involved, television has a wider option but starts in itself. Should filmfestivals emphazise on art, visual language, asthetic pleasure, and emotions; television is more the medium for the content in its own; the subject, the information or the amusement. Added to the totally different ways they reach their public (in which film is the handicapped one because of the effort to go there) the differences between a filmfestival and television should be obvious. Yet they are connected in more than one way and therefore one could say there should be more collaboration. The Dutch Cinekid-Festival is not only mentioned 'film and television-festival', it is one of the possibilities a filmfestival and television can work together.

Based on the theory that both media has qualified products and that those films and programmes are difficult to present to the audience, the two meet in the idea 'how to raise interest in quality?' Within the Cinekid-Festival we present – besides special programmes – a competition of newest films and an overview of the best television-programmes of the year before. The filmcompetition tries to reach the children directly, while the television-programmes have the intention to interest adults ( programmers, makers etc.). People from television visit the festival, meet each other and international quests and see the best films and compare them to their own work. All the Dutch directors (a.o. Ben Sombogaart, Maria Peters, Esmöe Lammers) have strong connection with television and don't regard film and television as closed areas. And that is another practical point for collaboration; the way children's film nowadays are produced, is becoming more and more the televisionseries as the basic material and from which the featurefilm is made out. Filmpeople sometimes regret this, but one can regard this developement as a reality and sometimes the only posibility of the production at all. Only in case the visual language of the film is dominated by the grammar of television a second opinion is necessary. In Holland the producers, directors (and don't forget the editors) feel the need to tell the stories in a cinematographic way. There could be a problem in future if films become more and more 'televisionised', but harmony in interest and presentation at a festival could avoid this.

Working together with television over 12 years, we can say that television can support a festival. Not only by money (Dutch companies are financially involved) but also in publicity. Each year at least five programmes are totally dedicted to the festival. Two (!) of them only on the films! Fragments of the films and interviews with directors are every year a part of these programmes and a special live show of the prize-giving ceremony is broadcasted nation-wide in prime time. That raised a lot of public and therefore is one of the basic parts of the festival. Without mentioning the 'normal' free-publicity programs as news-journals ar items in other programmes, we can say that the collaboration between the two media are good.

The goals of the festivals nowadays are widened; there should be more attention for the so called 'new media' (internet, computergames, etc.) All these belongs to the field of the audiovisual environment of children and young people.

Just by working together we've realised in a way the isolated goals of film and dare to announce that there will be children's filmfestivals forever.

Gabriele Rosslenbroich, Cinema Owner (Mettmann/Germany)
My family is in the film business since 1907. Today we operate three cinemas with seven screens in small and medium-sized towns which are all close to Düsseldorf, Germany.

Films for children play an essential part and are firmly established in our program. Besides the daily, regular program for children we also have Sunday matinèes, extra shows for kindergartens and we also organize KINDER-KINO-FESTS. Our program was awarded by the Department of Internal Affairs of Nordrhein-westfalen several times.

I am also in charge of ‚Films for Children in Cinemas‚, which is a project by the Main Board of German Cinemas. Thus, I cooperate with associations and subsidization committees and I also organize WORLD KIDS DAY in cinemas all over Germany. This I do in cooperation with the Department of Film Subsidies.
We are meeting here to talk about Children's Film Festivals and, from the viewpoint of a cinema owner, I see the situation as follows:

Basically festivals provide an informative basis for films to be shown for the first time. In addition, they also bring together producers, directors, etc and give them a chance to talk.

The most important reason, however, is to watch the reaction of the children while they are watching a movie and to see the audience reacting on a film.
Movies should not only be seen by a small group of festival devotees but by large audiences. Thus, festival films should not vanish in the big black box right after being presented.

Mostly, children's film festivals present good international productions but unfortunately only a small percentage of these films get to be shown on other screens as well.

Cinema owners are not really interested in festivals because, although they watch beautiful movies, they do not know whether they will be able to show these films in their own cinemas. Thus they rather wait and get information from the film press or from lists of distributors, telling them which films come on the market.
A lot of festival films do not find distributors, which means that they are irrelevant for regular cinemas.

Quite often financing a film also includes that the secondary and tertiary distribution rights have been sold at an early stage which means that this film has lost its appeal for the producer.

Thus let me ask you. Does that make sense? – - Well, I believe not.

Cinemas are the last link of the chain in terms of producing and they are also the first in terms of showing. We need children films for cinemas.

Why isn't it possible for a children's film festival to go on tour? Children only go to the cinema in their home town, they don't travel through the country to visit a festival for example in Berlin or Frankfurt. We would love to organize a children's film festival in our cinemas. But for a private company this is almost impossible. Our efforts to cooperate with the Children's Film Festival of Essen, Germany or to establish a ‚Rhein-Ruhr Festival' together with other cities failed due to the cost of distribution rights.

Children that like to watch movies most likely grow up to adults that are enthusiastic about films and probably become script writers, directors, producers, actors, festival directors or cinema owners.
This is my motto which is also an appeal for you and everybody else in the business: Do not give up trying to bring the medium film closer to the children, to present it to them. Children are the audience of tomorrow.

Margret Albers, Festival Director (Gera/Germany)
On the role of Children during a Festival
From its beginning in 1979 on the Golden Sparrow has a children's jury. Since 1991 they award the main prizes in six categories and since 1993 the jury consists of 32 children, at the age of 9 – 13, from east and west German regions.

The experience with the children demonstrates how seriously the children take their job, how thoroughly they analyse the films and TV productions and how detailed they are able to explain their decisions.
Involving children means further:

-In collaboration with the schools In Gera we enable classes to attend screenings scheduled in the morning.
After the competition screenings there is the opportunity to discuss with the filmmakers
The children have the possibility to write down their opinion of the productions they viewed, These opinions are made public
Children interested in film who are organised in so called ',film clubs“ are enabied to attend the festival.

We take children and their opinion seriously and want to offer a platform for a dialogue of filmprogramme makers and their target audience. A dialogue which can be interesting, funny, controversial and instructive for both parties.

Having this in mind mainly expect from children to simply be how they are. They should be curious and take the chance to ask those who are in charge for films and programmes what they want to know and to formulate their opinions, criticism and their wishes- And of course expect them to enjoy the festival.

Survey

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