Thiruvananthapuram to host first ever Children’s Film Festival

Assamese filmmaker Rima Das directorial

Village Rockstars

, which bagged the Best Feature Film at the 65th National Film Awards, Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven, Santosh Sivan’s Halo, Amole Gupte’s Stanley Ka Dabba, Iranian film The White Bridge and Jayaraj’s Ottal will be some of the films that will be screened at the first ever

International Children’s Film Festival of Kerala

(

ICFFK

), to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from May 14 to 20.
The week-long event will be a visual treat for city folks with more than 140 films to be screened under the sections — Best of Indian children’s films, classics, directors in focus, international children’s films, Malayalam feature films and Malayalam short films.

The fete, organised by the

Kerala State Council for Child Welfare

in association with Chalachithra Academy, Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) and

Balasahithya Institute

, will be a platform for children’s films and will promote the talents of child artistes, says

Mahesh Panju

, secretary of the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy. “A preview committee including members from all these institutes selected the films in the Malayalam section. Films which pass a strong message to children have been selected. We have also included small filler videos with good stories and messages,” says Mahesh Panju.

Popular films as well as those which have won national and regional recognition in the past two years have also been included. “An array of world famous children films including animated ones will help children learn about the medium of cinema. As it is a first attempt there won’t be any competition sections. Instead, there will be a poll at the various venues to decide which films the audience, especially children, liked the most,” adds Panju.
The fest will also have filmmaking workshops conducted by film personalities including actors and directors. Thus visitors can also get to meet the artistes of the respective films before the screening.

A highlight of the fest is that the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare has made it free for tribal children and children from orphanages. Deepu P, one of the co-ordinators of the ICFFK, says, “These children have less exposure to films and lack the know-how of films. Around 500 tribal children from across the State will participate in the event and will be provided food and accommodation by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare. Apart from watching the films they will also get the opportunity to interact with state and national award-winning child artistes during the ‘meet the artiste’ section.”