European Children's
Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma
pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse
In order to facilitate exchange and new opportunities for collaboration you can find here a selection of projects led by members, which have been presented in the “Open Mic session” at the ECFA Annual General Meetings. Furthermore some projects featured in the ECFA Journal are added.
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!
On 29 June ECFA brought approx. 50 festivals together in an online meeting, looking for answers to their most urgent questions. Several member organisations shared their experiences in different phases of festival preparation:
– The Women’s Film Festival Barcelona (Marta Nieto Postigo) took place in June as an online event.
– The Busan Int’l Kids & Youth Film Festival (Emily Jang) is counting down to next week’s festival opening.
– Cinekid (Heleen Rouw) is preparing her festival for October.
– Xiaojuan Zhou (Attraction Distribution) shared the perspective of a sales agent.
– #OneWorldChildren (Jitendra Mishra) is an online project running successfully in times of lockdown.
Check out the the full report of the meeting.
Based on the impression that the production of children’s films in South Eastern European countries is extremely low and that movies from Northern European countries do not circulate in the region, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, supported by the Greek Film Centre, launched a research initiative. They identified the need to have reliable data as a basis for reflection and, where appropriate, for proposals to encourage children’s film in Southern Europe.
“In Weimar at the KIDS Regio Forum (26-28 June) a high-profile Think Tank will lay down the tracks to follow towards the future. Anne Schultka (KIDS Regio) and Nicola Jones (Golden Sparrow) help us to unravel the children’s film and media construction in the German state of Thuringia.
ZARA AND THE MAGICAL FOOTBALL BOOTS is a Dutch TV series in which children living in AZCs participate. Not only as actors – director Mirjam Marks and producer Julia Schellekens included them in every part of the filmmaking process.