Left: Heleen Rouw, right: Sara Juričić

Cinekid, the world’s largest media and film festival for children, kicks off October 15 with the world premiere of Dutch Margien Rogaar’s high-spirited coming-of-age family movie Jippie No More!**.

Festival director Heleen Rouw was never in any doubt this was the perfect opening movie. It’s about a teenage boy (played by Wesley van Klink) with Down’s Syndrome who is preparing for his sister’s wedding and dealing with the pangs of first love. “It has a very important theme - inclusivity. Everybody is special and everybody is allowed to be themselves. The film reflects on this theme in a very Cinekid way, open and curious,” she says.

Rouw notes that many more animated titles were submitted to Cinekid this year than in the past. One reason for this is that these films continued to be made throughout the Covid period, at a time when live-action was a challenge.

“We have really high-quality animation in our international competition, like Chicken For Lindafor instance,” she cites the French-Italian production from Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, about a girl and her mum on a frantic hunt for a chicken.

The festival boss (who took up the reins at Cinekid in 2020) warns that kids’ movies, especially international ones, are struggling for traction in the Dutch theatrical market. They simply don’t get picked up by local distributors. 

“There are so many high-quality films in the market already…quality films targeted at children have a very hard time to find their audience.”

Cinekid therefore is turning into an oasis - the one place where such movies can still be found. “It’s not [so much] regarding Dutch children’s films, but international children’s films definitely. The festival platform is more and more a place for sales agents for international distribution when films are not picked up theatrically.”

Rouw praises the quality of the Dutch children’s films that are being made. One movie she particularly admires is Kiddo** from Zara Dwinger, a mother-daughter road movie with some of the flavour of Bonnie And Clyde. This was released in Dutch cinemas by Gusto Entrainment in July and has been selected for the Best Dutch Children’s Feature Competition.

Cinekid’s biggest focus is on 6 to 9-year olds (“the core audience”) but it also programmes titles for pre-school viewers and for adolescents. Rouw has seen an increase in the number both of coming-of-age films and series and of those aimed at pre-school audiences. Said and Anna**, a preschool series of NPO Zapp will premiere at Cinekid both in Amsterdam and several cities throughout the country.

The main location of the festival is Amsterdam, but Cinekid also plays across the whole of the Netherlands. This year, 40 venues are involved, among them big arthouse theatres in cities like Rotterdam and Haarlem and libraries and “event rooms” in smaller towns. Kids in many of these places won’t just have the chance to see festival movies but will also be given the opportunity to take part in Cinekid’s celebrated MediaLab with its workshops, VR games and digital art works. 

Ticket prices are kept low to make Cinekid as accessible as possible to the entire community. Those from low income households can get all-day tickets for as little as €1 while many other activities are presented for free in front of the festival venue, for example an inflatable cinema featuring international shorts.

Industry

Sara Juričić, Head of Cinekid for Professionals, points out that the festival is also getting to grips this year with a question kids and adults both now have to face…”is it real?” In the brave new world of AI and fake news, where does the truth lie? What media can be trusted?

“What we are going to be exploring is the impact of technology on children’s lives and how the lines between online and offline are being blurred more and more,” she explains. 

Furthermore, Cinekid for Professionals Industry Forum welcomes the arrival of Matt Weckel, co-founder of Neon Wild, an immersive virtual platform aimed at kids and their parents. “His mission is to empower children, to help them see themselves as heroes and to really work on their representation in games,” Juričić observes of the pioneering US exec.

Deanna Marsigliese, an art director for Pixar, will be giving the opening keynote at Industry Forum, and will also be working with kids during the festival. There will be masterclasses where children can learn about everything from special effects to voice acting (and one lucky kid will be given the chance to do some professional voice work in a new animated movie.)

Projects in the Junior Co-Production Market have some surprisingly grown-up themes. There are titles dealing with family bereavement, climate change and gender equality. She cites Big Bang Parade, which has seven female directors and a female producer (Annemie Degryse), as an example of ‘girl power’ in action. Encouragingly, the number of projects being submitted to the market are now edging back to pre-pandemic levels.

Young Horizons Industry and Cinekid for Professionals continue to join forces through Producers LINK, an established programme for emerging producers of children’s content. Both events aim to stimulate the production of high-quality kids’ content through international talent labs, co-production markets, promotion, matchmaking, and exchange of knowledge through their conference programmes.

The 10th Cinekid Script LAB again offers the opportunity for an international group of writers and writer/directors to work on their plans for children’s feature films or series. The programme offers tailor-made coaching and training, answering to the specific writer’s and story’s needs along a six-month trajectory. Two Dutch Script LAB projects this year are the live action feature Bizarre, written by Eva Keuris and produced by Rinkel Film; and the live-action series My Mother Always Says, written by Annick de Wolf and produced by Fiction Valley.

“This year we’re happy to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Cinekid Script LAB,” Juričić underlines of the milestone. “During the past editions, 110 projects have gone through the whirlwind of two Script LAB residencies. 139 writers have closely collaborated with each other and their coaches, and each year the number of submissions reaches a new record. This, in itself, is why we’re so proud of what we have achieved with the LAB, and it’s the right motivation to keep on developing it further, making sure we are the right place for filmmakers looking for a safe and secure way for them to work on their projects.”

From October 16 to December 31 Cinekid for Professionals' digital video library offers more than 350 recent children’s productions from all over the world, with particular focus on European productions. 

Cinekid takes place from October 15 to 29. For more information, click here. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive