More than 300 films, including Animation, Documentary and Short films, from 109 countries will be screened during a week-long International Children’s Film Festival to be organised by the Children’s Film Society, India in Hyderabad from November 8.
“A special jury has selected 300-0dd films for screening from among a record 1,402 entries received from 109 countries in various categories. These include the films selected from 179 entries received from 30 countries in little Director's section,” CFSI CEO Dr Shravan Kumar told The Pioneer here on Sunday.
“The theme for this year's festival is 'New India' which is in keeping with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of creating a New India by 2022,” Kumar said.
The 20th Golden Elephant ICFFI, which is the largest children’s festival in the world, will be hosted by Telangana Government jointly with CFSI and the Ministry of I&B, Government of India.
Elaborating on the films to be screened under the little Director's section introduced 2013, Kumar said: “We, at CFSI, believe that every child has a story to tell and with this in mind, CFSI few years ago started 'little Directors' section in which films for children are made by children themselves.w little Director's section screens films made by children in competitive and non-competitive categories.”
“Of 179 entries received from over 30 countries in little Director's section, 101 are from India and the rest (78) from other countries. Hence the little Director's section has sizeable international participation and I am looking forward to showing these creative pieces put together by children from so many countries in the festival,” Kumar said.
A series of Workshops and Open Forums on various aspects related to film making and storytelling are being organised at the ICFFI in which children as well as experts in the field will participate. These would be followed by Q&A session which would help children to grasp the various aspects of film making and related fields.
The ICFFI is a biennial festival that strives to bring the most delightful, creative and imaginative national and international children's cinema to the young audiences in India. Excellent features, shorts, live action, animation and little Director’s films would be screened over seven days of the festival. Apart from giving children an opportunity to interact with other children, guests, jury members and film directors from different parts of the globe, the festival aims to showcase films which cultivate an understanding of other cultures, lives and experiences and motivate the children to reflect upon the happenings in the world.
Since its inception in 1955, CFSI has participated in more than 250 Indian and Interna-tional Film Festivals. In the past, CFSI has reached out to children belonging to Conflict Zones like Kashmir, tribal areas like in Jharkhand and N-E States.