KidzCinema2020 - An International Children's Film Festival
For centuries, storytelling has evolved through various forms and the tradition has been passed on through generations in many ways. From visual/oral to written, and digital – stories have been expressed through various mediums such as drawing, painting, photography, animation, and motion videos – giving it a new dimension. Over the years, Cinema has become the most powerful medium of creative expression, globally. The evolution of children’s films has been an interesting paradigm in the world of cinema as it has the highest potential to impact the children. Even in their formative years, children have tremendous cognitive abilities to grasp the essence of communication through films irrespective of the existing language barriers. Children’s films therefore not only become a great source of entertainment but also tools for learning and growth. The number of children’s film festivals organised in various countries including India has been established as well-known properties towards children’s cinema.
Distancing Times of Covid-19
COVID-19 has brought the world to a halt, and the impact of the pandemic is severely felt by children, who always bring cheer and happiness to us. With parks and playgrounds closed, fun, outings, and socialising with friends coming to a standstill, kids have been confined indoors, and the physical entertainment has moved to digital. Their joy of little things has been eclipsed, their expression of creativity has been dwarfed, and their wings have been clipped off the freedom that they would otherwise enjoy on a day to day basis.
Festival Theme
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, children across the world are forced to be confined in their homes to ensure social distancing. How do we ensure togetherness in the times of social distancing? - has been the key question everyone wants to address? Hence, the theme of this festival “Togetherness in Distancing Times”, which also upholds the objective of Universal Children's Day, i.e, promoting international togetherness.
Festival Format
The very first edition of this Children’s Film Festival "KidzCINEMA2020" will be delivered in a completely online environment to the global audience. It will give opportunities to young kids as well as teenagers to watch movies from across the globe and to know more and learn about the process of filmmaking. Children will get to watch movies, interact with directors, actors, and also participate in various LIVE workshops on scriptwriting, animation, and filmmaking. It will be a 3-day event starting on the Universal Children's Day, which is celebrated on 20th November each year, to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare. The Festival will have its opening ceremony on 20th November 2020 while the closing ceremony will be organised on 22nd November 2020.
Key Film Categories
The Film Festival will have two key sections - Competition and Exhibition. Filmmakers from across the globe can submit entries for both. Following are the categories:
Competition:
Live Action (Feature & Short)
Animation (Feature & Short)
Kids Made films
Children’s Panorama:
Children’s films
Country in focus
Logistics/Execution
The Festival will be relayed on ZOOM, a videoconferencing platform. This will further be made available on all social media platforms of the festival such as Facebook LIVE, YouTube, IGTV, etc. We are exploring the possibility of a possible tie-up with a children’s TV channel for beaming the festival LIVE in India and abroad. Besides, we will have an outreach to various chains of schools for involving their students in participating in the festival from the perspectives of submitting the film entries and exhibition as well.
Organizers
There is an urgent need to bring in elements of joy, fun, creativity, and cheerfulness back into children’s lives, and cinema can be probably the most interesting way to do that. In pursuit of this, White Coffee and CINEMA by CMT brings KidzCINEMA2020 for Indian children to connect with their global counterparts through the medium of cinema in an online platform. White Coffee Event Management Pvt. Ltd., a celebrity and event management company, has joined hands with CINEMA (Creating Indian National Ethos through Media & Arts) by Chandrika Memorial Trust, a platform helping the young people in India express themselves through Media and Arts for bringing this event to an International audience.
