Author: Gert Hermans

“Is it set in stone that our audience should live on the streets?”

The Abloom festival has a unique audience profile: people who can’t afford to buy a cinema ticket. Disabled children, especially with a minority background, don’t find their way easily into the cinema theatres. The 9^th edition of the Oslo-based festival will take place in November, but co-programmer Eszter Vuojala has been earning her merits in the world of children’s film for many years already.

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The ultrasound of an 8 year old boy

Toprak is an 8 year old boy with a Turkish background, living in Paris with his parents. His mother is expecting twins. After joining his parents on a visit to the gynaecologist, his interest shifts from his initial question ‘will they be boys or girls?’ to a much more important question ‘will they be healthy?’ As an interpreter for his parents, he is asked to pass on impactful news. Over the course of one hospital visit, Toprak turns from a boy into a man. When evening falls, the question about boys or girls is no longer on his mind.

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Rules are to be broken

Darek has to look after his mentally handicapped sister Ema, ever since his father has difficulty coping with life. But the summer season looks promising. A herd of sick horses that have become useless to their owners arrives on the farm, and Darek takes a liking to these fast trotting “angels”. Then there is Hanna, who beguilingly smells of oranges. In the Filem’on festivals in Brussels, I speak with Ivan Pokorný about this vibrant teenager story with an opening scene that drags you into the film with its fast paced editing.

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Same goal, different approach

From a one-man project in Valencia to a worldwide network of festivals in which the work of professional directors is appreciated, yet remains in the shadow of films made by children. Josep Arbiol, founder of the MiCe festival in Valencia, is a buccaneer who sees opportunities that others ignore. With lights twinkling in his eyes, he is trying to put the funk back in media education. A clown with a mission, about which he tells with great passion.

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Nika is 9 years old and a spoiled, rebellious princess. Years after her mother’s death, she is still trying to win the attention of her father, the Poet King. Until she finds out that her father’s neglect is caused by his split personality, the Warrior King. The two kings are rivalling with each other, thus ruining the kingdom with their opposed strategies. Nika now has to save herself, save the kingdom and, most importantly, help her father overcome the loss of her mother, which was the initial cause of his split personality. TWICE UPON A TIME was successfully pitched at the CEE Animation Forum, where we spoke with Vojin Vasovic (director & producer) and Milorad Kocic (producer).

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“We’ve set a rose and a bed on fire”

Cassandra Offenberg is carefully accosted by an employee of the doxs! festival: if she can please stay in Duisburg for one more night to attend the closing ceremony? That implicates two times good news: she might win a festival award (indeed, the ECFA Doc Award) and we have the opportunity to interview the director of yet another rock-solid documentary under the Dutch Kids & Docs label.

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