Teens & Screens 2025 is the fourth annual research report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (UCLA). It surveyed 1,500 adolescents aged 10–24 across the United States. This comprehensive study explores how young people engage with entertainment media today, including films, TV, streaming platforms, video games, and social media, and their expectations of the stories created for them. Continue reading “Insights into Youth Media Engagement: GET REAL!”
Research
In order to bring interesting and inspiring data and research on children’s film and media to the attention of our website users on a regular basis, we have established an Academic Committee that meets twice a year to review and curate material for this section of our site.
Most links provided lead to english versions. In some cases only the original language is available. But thanks to translation tools, you can easily access the knowledge in English or even your native language.
Members of the Academic Committee are Irene Andriopoulou, EKKOMED – Creative Greece, Athens; Edita Bilaver, Kids Meet Art, Sedmi kontinent, Zagreb, Croatia; Dr. Noel Brown, Liverpool Hope University, UK; Elisa Giovannelli, Cineteca di Bologna, Italy; Mikk Granström, PhD, Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia; ECFA board member Marjo Kovanen, PhD, National Audiovisual Institute, Finland; Eva Novrup Redvall, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Anne Schultka, KIDS Regio, Erfurt, Germany and Margret Albers, AC Coordinator.
A KIDS Regio mapping of regional support for children’s and youth cinema
The Cine Regio Young Audience Report 2025 maps the strategic support that Cine Regio members provide for young audiences and the production of content for them. It showcases a variety of approaches, including dedicated funding schemes, educational programmes, festivals, talent initiatives and specialised team members. Continue reading “A KIDS Regio mapping of regional support for children’s and youth cinema”
Radical Children’s Film and Television
This publication by Barbora Kyas and Noel Brown explores the potential for children’s and youth film festivals as spaces for the exhibition of radical children’s films.
The chapter, which is available to view/download, is based partly on interviews with programmers from a range of festivals, mostly in Europe and several of them ECFA members. Continue reading “Radical Children’s Film and Television”
From Research Project to Policy Insight: The REBOOT Report
The REBOOT project – Reviving, Boosting, Optimising and Transforming European Film Competitiveness is a Horizon Europe research initiative launched in summer 2023 and coordinated by the University of Vienna together with 11 partner universities. The project investigates how European film competitiveness can be strengthened through policy, institutional frameworks, production, distribution and audience engagement.
The report presented here is a completed research deliverable within the REBOOT project, focusing on institutional and legal models for the international promotion of European film.
Continue reading “From Research Project to Policy Insight: The REBOOT Report”
The Film Corner. Digital innovative environments for Film & Media Literacy
The Film Corner – a European initiative of Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, co-financed by the EU—is a free, multilingual digital platform designed for students aged 11–18 and their teachers. Rooted in the “three Cs” of film literacy (Critical, Creative, Cultural), it offers an accessible environment for understanding cinema as a language and cultural practice, while introducing basic creative skills. Continue reading “The Film Corner. Digital innovative environments for Film & Media Literacy”
Research on Film Literacy in Croatia
The Croatian Audiovisual Centre has completed the first national research on film literacy, aiming to understand how children and young people in Croatia watch, interpret, and engage with film—and how schools and educators support (or fail to support) this process. Continue reading “Research on Film Literacy in Croatia”
Encountering Horror in Children’s Cinema
Horror in Children’s Cinema and Film Education explores a field that is often considered controversial within children’s audiovisual culture. While frightening motifs in films for young audiences frequently provoke public debate and educational concern, they also offer rich aesthetic, cultural, and pedagogical possibilities. Focusing on Finnish children’s cinema, this research examines how horror can support film literacy, participation, and active spectatorship in film education.
To helping children lead healthy lives in a digital world …
… is the motto of the Handbook of Children and Screens. Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence. This open access handbook was edited by Dimitri A. Christakis (Seattle Children’s Research Institute/University of Washington) and Lauren Hale (School of Medicine Stony Brook University). It summarizes the insights of nearly 400 (!) international leading experts across the fields of pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology, communication, neuroscience, sociology, history, legal studies, social work, human development and family studies, gender studies, African American studies, education, information technology and design, and more.
Continue reading “To helping children lead healthy lives in a digital world …”