Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Ojo de Pescado Int’l Film Festival for Children & Youth in Chile has positioned itself as a benchmark for youth film in Latin-America.
The Ojo de Pescado Int’l Film Festival, founded in 2012 in Valparaíso, Chile, since 2020 also has an online programme, an approach that will alternate with ‘on the spot’ activities in its upcoming editions. Recently a big online festival celebration was held (13 July – 5 September), with more than 200 films and TV series streamed, a hundred virtual guests and 50 complementary online activities such as debates and workshops.
Since 2019 the Ojo de Pescado Film Festival has launched an intense collaborative alliance with the Schlingel Festival, thanks to which significant German films have been shared with the children of Chile. Ever since signing up with ECFA, the number of European titles on the Ojo de Pescado programme has increased drastically. This year four European films participated in the Feature Film Competition and three of them took home the main awards: NOTHING MORE PERFECT (Teresa Hoerl, Germany – Best Film for Teenagers), TRIPLE TROUBLE (Marta Karwowska, Poland – Best Film for Children), and SISTERS – THE SUMMER WE FOUND OUR SUPERPOWERS (Arild Østin Ommundsen & Silje Salomonsen, Norway – Jury’s Special Mention).
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In this year’s Film & TV series Jury, 50 children from different regions in Chile valued the great ability of film makers to put on screen young characters that authentically reflect universal concerns of children. Representing them as autonomous, resilient and skilled protagonists, solving the conflicts that affect them, without fear of touching seemingly strong issues.