European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
“A hoodie in a box“
Sihja, an outrageous young fairy, is surely one of a kind. When entering the life of Alfred, a shy and sensitive boy, she turns his whole world upside down. She messes up his room, scares off his friends and spits her milk all over the table. But even stranger things are happening. Birds are found dead on the streets, and both plants and people display rather peculiar behaviour. Something weird is going on at the local fertilizer factory!
“Realism allows me more than fantasy does“
Margot and Marguerite are both 12 years old, struggling with family, friends and other issues. But one lives in 1942 during the war, the other one in 2020. They tumble into each other’s lives via a magical trunk. One more thing they have in common: an absent father. Despite the 70 years that separate them, they embark together on an adventure on the edge of space and time.
In LA MIF (aka THE FAM), self-taught Swiss filmmaker Fred Baillif tells an impressive story about seven teenage girls with traumatic family experiences, living in a residential shelter in Geneva. Mif is a French slang word for family; although most of the girls have parents and siblings, public welfare has put them in a home.
Elizabeth Shepherd, who, as organiser of the Children’s Film Festival Seattle, often sought to connect with European festivals while firmly upholding the individuality and tradition of her own event, is leaving the festival in good hands.
Continue reading “Elizabeth Shepherd’s farewell to Festival Seattle”
It must have been since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that so many big shots were gathered around one table. A digital roundtable, where the Industry Days of the Kristiansand Int’l Children’s Film Festival fired some questions at the crême de la crême of the European animation league. Here are some fragments of what they had to say on…
Isn’t it a bit nerdy, a festival where the introduction speeches emphasise the restoration techniques that were used, and where restoration studios get more applause than directors? Among the audience you will find cinephiles, representatives of film schools and film museums, and children! Within this huge festival, a young audience section stands out not only for its unique programming, but also for the astonishing diversity of its audience.
The thing with magic dragons is that they can appear everywhere, ready to fuel a few fires. Drac Magic is everywhere – they have a hand in every step of the film dissemination process and they actively give shape to the theoretical and social framework in which they desire to work. Their ideas are outspoken, and so are their actions. Celebrating their 50th anniversary, they’re still true to Drac Magic’s initial ideals, but flexible enough to have them evolving according to the needs of today.
Claudio Gubitosi: “Changing the idea about the South“Everybody knows the Giffoni Film Festival, one of the biggest children’s film events, but little do we know about the beating heart of the festival, the founder and director Claudio Gubitosi. What we all know about the festival in Southern Italy is this: it’s welcoming young people from around the globe through exchange projects, it’s big in numbers, premieres and screenings, it attracts famous Hollywood stars as festival guests and… it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary!