International Children’s Film Festival to start from Nov 14

Nov 10: India is all set to kick off its 15 th International Children’s Film Festival also known as ‘Golden Elephant’ in Hyderabad from November 14.

The film which has been chosen to grace the occasion is the film Khan Kluay Thailand’s first computer graphics animated film depicting the relationship between elephants and human being.

Such occasion comes as rare event to children’s life where there are very few movies are made understanding their thoughts and imagination.

The six-day film festival on 14 th November coincides with children’s day celebrated in India, is full of entertainment filled with fun and frolic as it has come with 119 films exclusively for children.

Nafisa Ali, Chairperson of Children Film Society (CFSI) said, “We start the children film festival on Nov 14 because it was initiated by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru whose birth anniversary falls that day”.

“Next year we are also going to have a National Award for children's films. We feel that awarding and rewarding is very important,” added Ali.

The National Children’s Films Awards will be presented in Delhi and will alternate with the International Children’s Festival.

She said pointing towards the need of home made films, “We have eight TV channels for children and most of them show foreign films or animated movies dubbed in our languages. We should have our own programmes showing our own culture, history, tradition and ethos”.

The biannual festival has six sections including International competition, Asian Panorama, The Children’s World, Special Screening, Creative Workshops and special events for Children.

Among the bunch 119 films, 40 films will compete for the top awards in the international competition, other than this there are 26 films in the non-competitive children’s world section and 20 in the special screenings.

The festival will have star studded inauguration with all the eminent personalities from political galleries as well as actors from different part of the world including Brazil, China, France and Iran apart from India.

YS Rajashekhara Reddy, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Union Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju are expected to attend the inauguration ceremony.

Aamir Khan will be the Guest of Honour at the grand finale to distribute the award to the best productions in the Asian Panorma and International Competition sections.

The jury includes renowned film makers like Mike Pandey, V.G Samant, Mathew Harrocks from New Zealand, Andi Spark of Griffth Film School Brisbane Australia, eminent journalist Vasiraju Prakasam and writer and social worker Dr K. V. Krishna Kumari for International competition.

While Tsvetomira Niikolova from Bulgaria, Izabela Wierzbinska of Poland actresses Mrinal Kulkarni and Rojaramani and eminent filmmaker Relangi Narsimha Rao to judge the best movie in Asian Panorma category.

The most interesting part is that a Children Jury is set up to judge the film from their perspectives, from the perspective of young minds. This special jury includes five children singer Bhavya Pandit, child prodigy in mathematics Master Nischal Narayana, and child artistes Master T Saikumar, Master Vishu Teja and Sruthakirthy.

The children Jury will award a Golden Plaque and Rs 1 Lakh for the film in International Competition Section.

The Film festival will get a boost after the film Mahek won the best feature film award at ARPA International Film Festival, 2007 Hollywood.

The film Mahek is a little girl’s journey to self realisation and reflects the changes in India, a journey from economic freedom to seeking intellectual identity. The movie is produced by CFSI and is directed by K Kanade. The cast of the film include Shreya Sharma, Anuya Bhagwat, Madam Deodhar, Anuja Bor Karand others.

Such film festivals are gaining importance in the context that an early exposure to violent movies has made children vulnerable to crime and has blotted their growth as a character.

This is the irony that we worry about what a child will become tomorrow yet we forget that he is someone today, and it depends on what we serve in their platter as it is well said “Children are like wet cement; whatever falls on them makes an impression”.