European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
Name me one festival that does not have ‘improving the domestic production climate for children’s films’ among its objectives. Filem’on certainly does! For which they have an ambitious plan: organising a script lab. The initiative is aimed exclusively at Belgian participants and will take place in both national languages, French and Flemish.
Mo&Friese (4-9 June 2024) has been part of the Hamburg Short Film Festival for 26 years. In three different competitions, eight programmes are screened for an audience of 4-18 years, sorted according to age.
On Saturday 17 February ECFA announced the winners of the three annual European ECFA Awards for Best Children’s Film, Best Children’s Documentary and Best Children’s Short Film. The winner of the prestigious Best Film Award was CHICKEN FOR LINDA (by Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach, France/Italy), the Documentary Award went to WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (by Alisa Kovalenko, Ukraine/France/Poland), and the Short Film was awarded to TO BE SISTERS (by Anne-Sophie Gousset & Clément Céard, France). All awards were handed out in Berlin during a festive ceremony, celebrated with the international young audience film community.
Continue reading “ECFA Awards 2024 taken home to France & Ukraine”
What is the status of film production for children and youth in the Nordics? Are the historically praised Nordic funding schemes still going strong? In October 2023 film professionals from six Nordic countries and regions met in Copenhagen to share their findings and experiences at The Pan Nordic Industry Think Tank on Children’s Media, organised by NoJSe and funded by MEDIA – Creative Europe.
The Dutch Taartrovers (Cake Robbers) have done wonderful things, which is why ECFA was delighted to involve them in our projects (such as the first edition of the Workshop Warehouse). But now they have done something they have never done before: curating their first exhibition about film! Lichtspielplatz (Light-playground) is a collaboration with the DFF (German Film Institute & Film Museum) in Frankfurt, where the exhibition is stationed. The exhibition will be open until 12 May and will then be available to other interested parties. You too can easily invite a gang of Cake Robbers too! Continue reading “Taartrovers curates exposition with DFF (Frankfurt)”
In 2020 the short film THE KICKSLED CHOIR (by Torfinn Iversen, Norway) was a real award magnet. The film – shortlisted for the Oscars in 2021 and taking home awards from just about every festival it screened at – tells of a boy who witnesses a racist incident involving his father. In a wintry village, preparing for Christmas, he stands up for his own convictions, although this increases tensions with his father. It looks like this beautiful short film is now getting an extension: THE KICKSLED CHOIR – the feature film is currently being prepared by Norwegian producer Fjordic Film.
Continue reading “New Norwegian features on the horizon: THE KICKSLED CHOIR and DANCING QUEEN 2”
Several festivals have the habit of inviting their guests for a filmed interview, posting the clips online. Such videos mainly serve local audiences but ECFA would like to offer them a chance for greater visibility. Festivals that have clips or podcasts available are hereby invited to distribute them via the ECFA website.
The Antwerp Youth Film Festival (formerly known as JEF festival) comes up with something new every year, while preserving previous successes. A classic festival highlight was the ‘Experiential Screenings’ and for the first time the event had a ‘festival square’ with an inflatable cinema and game arena.
Continue reading “Youth Film Festival Antwerp creates Inflatable Festival Village”