JOIN USA fiesta of fun-filled, adventurous, educative and entertaining films await young adults when the ninth edition of annual five-day Children’s India International Children’s Film Festival gets underway in City from January 20 to 24, 2014.
Over 200 films, of different genres — shorts, full-length features, animation, and small experimental shorts made by kids themselves, curated from 44 countries, will enthral, engage and enlighten schoolchildren.
The movies will be screened at Bal Bhavan at Cubbon Park, Priyadarshini Auditorium at Badami House, near City Corporation, Boulevard Rangoli on MG Road, Metro Art Centre, Madhavan Park near Shivananda Stores, and Navarang at Rajajinagar.
The festival will be flagged off at Jnanajyothi Auditorium, at 11 am by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, followed by the award-winning, box-office hit opening film from Netherlands Mike Says Goodbye by Maria Peters, a light-hearted, comic-yet-serious drama, revolving around a 10-year-old boy recovering from leukemia, following bone transplant from his mother.
Not wanting to be separated from his mother, how, Mike, along with his roommate Vincent, cooks up plan to remain in hospital until his mother arrives, forms the fun-filled adventure flick set in the hospital during Christmas holiday season.
The festival, which also has special sections on environmental and wildlife section, films made by kids for kids from seven countries, and country focus on Denmark, will see features, short fiction, animation and the lot from countries ranging from Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Latvia, Russia, to UK, US and Venezuela.
Besides, festival awards will be bestowed for best film, best director, child artiste, animation, short film, Indian film, and International Children Jury Award comprising a panel of children from several countries, and the Special CIFEJ Award (International Centre of Films for Children and Young People).
According to Festival Director, N R Nanjunde Gowda, “the festival provides a platform for children to educate them through films as also inculcate in them a sense of better cinema appreciation and instil good cinema viewing habits among them.”
The admission for screenings are free. Adults, who wish to accompany their children, must obtain passes from festival office — Children’s India, 1st Floor, My Sugar Building, JC Road. The office can be contacted on 41324898.