INVC,,
Hyderabad,,
The 17th International Children’s Film Festival will be organized by Children’s Film Society India (CFSI), which is going to be held from the 14th November, 2011 to the 20th November, 2011 at Shilpramum, Hyderabad.
741 films from 86 countries have been submitted out of which 170 films from 44 countries were short listed. Due to its growing popularity such a large number of countries have participated in this festival.
Actress Nandita Das, being the Chair Person of Children Film Society India informed, “Many informative and entertaining films will be shown to the children, and many useful workshops on different aspects of film and cinematography will be held at this International Children’s Film Festival in Hyderabad.”
Nandita Das added, “movies in this category includes, Iran’s “The Other’, France’s “Tales of the night”, China’s, “The star and the sea”. Denmark’s “The Great Bear”, India’s “Chillar Party”, “Stanley ka Dabba” and “I Am Kalam”. Along with these include Australia’s, “The lost thing” by Andrew Ruhemnon, a 2011 Oscar Winning Film. The “Ugly Duckling” and “Tales of the night”, to name a few. Through this festival we make sure the children grow up watching these cult films made especially for them.”
This is the best platform for children’s exposure to world cinema in its truest and purest form. Not only do they get to watch these films made by world class directors the children also get a chance to understand various aspects that goes into film making. It sure gets interesting when you have best of the jury and prime members, from across the globe giving their insights.
The category of Children’s World boasts of 100 best films of the last decade. Besides, there is another set of films to be screened which are directed by China’s Children’s Film Association.
To screen these films at the venue, 3 artificial AC theatres have been made. Along with feature films many interesting and entertaining short films will be screened at the festival.
The exciting and surprising element besides the films and workshops at this festival is the fact that director/singer Gulzar is composing the lyrics for the festival and Vishal Bhardwaj is composing the music.
The very jubilant CEO, CFSI, Sushovan Banerjee is very excited with the upcoming of the festival. He promises that, “each time we are getting better with the quality of the festival. And so this time the festival is going to be twice as wonderful and exciting than before. The venue and environment is all charged up with a lot of new package and benefits for the children. We are waiting to host this festival for the children and give them an occasion to remember.”
Judges who are the connoisseur in this field of art will preside over the panel, who are globally known for their contribution towards cinema.
The chair person of the jury for the International Films category, Rock Demers has been involved in all facets of filmmaking. He has co-founded the film magazine Images, has founded a children film distribution company Faroun Films and has many awards under his production.
Other judges include, Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. also a filmmaker, he wrote, produced, and directed Pepot Artista (Pepot Superstar) which won Best Picture in the 1st Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.
Murali Nair recently started a nonprofit educational organization, Art for Change, to inspire women and children develop their potential through the visual media. He has five critically acclaimed feature films to his credit. He has been the member of jury in many international films festivals including Cannes.
Elizabeth Shepherd is the director Children’s Film Festival Seattle, also a curator of REDCAT International Children’s Film Festival, held annually in LA. She has served on the juries of children’s film festivals in Korea, Russia, India, and Egypt.
Seema Biswas is an Indian film and theatre actress who shot into prominence with the role of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur’s internationally acclaimed film Bandit Queen for which she won numerous awards including the National Award.
Apart from these, the juries for Indian Films category are Joke Van Leeuwen from Belgium, Xiaojuan Zhou from Canada, famous Indian actress Sarika, Shaad Ali Sahgal and Sreekar Prasad.
And the Chair person of the jury members for Short Films category is Marjan Riahi, and others include CHRIS “Doc” Wyatt, Rahul Dholakia, Dr. Yella Venkateswara Rao and Aparajita Sinha.
Both the National and International level films will have equal number of trophies and rewards to be given to the deserving films. Best feature film will be awarded with Rs. 2 lac and a Golden Elephant Trophy, 1st runner up Feature Film will be awarded with Rs. 1 lac and a trophy, Best Director will be given Rs. 1.5 lac and a Golden Elephant Trophy, Best Script will be given Rs. 1 lac and a Trophy. Apart from these, the winner of the Best Feature Film decided by the Children’s Jury will be awarded with the Golden Elephant Trophy.
Best Short Film will be given Rs. 1 lac and a Golden Elephant Trophy, the runner up for the same will be awarded with 50 Thousand Rupees and a Golden Elephant Trophy. The film chosen by the Children’s Jury and also the films directed by the children will be given the prestgious Golden Elephant Trophy.
International Children’s Film Festival (ICFFI) is also famous as Golden Elephant in India. This festival is held every two years where children from all over the world are shown various interesting and novel films. The films are feature length, short films and animation films. Thousands of children and hundreds of film directors and producers attend this festival.
