The 4th Cinemira Int’l Children’s & Youth Film Festival in Budapest spanned two weekends in October, one dedicated to Cinemira TEEN and one to Cinemira KIDS. In pitch forums for the first time not only professional filmmakers but also teenagers presented their film ideas. Meanwhile, 10 European festival representatives attended the Partner up! Conference to discuss potential future collaborations.
In the Cinemira Pitch Forum teenage creators could present their ideas. Festival director Nora Lakos: “We want to discover what topics the target audience is really interested in, to have films made in the future based on young people’s ideas. The ideas of 10-19 year old youngsters were developed during the summer with the help of professional script writers, consultants and improv actors in the framework of Junior ScripLab, a joint workshop by Cinemira and the Hungarian National Film Institute’s Fast Forward Programme.” In a second pitch, addressing professional filmmakers, the Golden Squirrel Award for Best Children’s Film Project went to ROBOEK, an animated series by Ádám Felszeghy.
One remarkable guest during Cinemira TEEN was Julie Andam, creator of the Norwegian SKAM, a teen drama formula that has been copied and recreated all over Europe.
The ECFA Jury at Cinemira awarded its prize to the short film THE TOMTEN AND THE FOX (by Yaprak Morali & Are Austnes, Norway). The ECFA Jury were Felix Vanginderhuysen (ECFA, Belgium), Michael Harbauer (Schlingel, Germany) and Jo-Anne Blouin (Fifem, Canada).