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The two-day virtual Children’s Cinema Global Forum organised jointly by Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF) and Lahore International Children’s Film Festival concluded yesterday (January 30, Saturday) following an insight into the future of film festivals and a discussion on how all stakeholders can work together to learn from experiences and form collaborations.

At the session titled, ‘Future of Festivals, on nurturing children talent and its social impact’, Mitsuo Tahira, Director of the Kineko Int’l Children’s Film Festival, Japan, said: “Our festival was founded in 1992 and is getting bigger each year. The first one had a 600-audience capacity and only 5 people attended. By 2019, we welcomed millions of attendees. Through our film festivals, we have been offering a fun environment in which children, aged 0-12, have been educating themselves and learning so much about world cultures.”

In the next two-three years, he said that his hope is that film festivals will be back in their in-person format. For the time-being the director prefers a more cautious approach. “For the upcoming edition of Kineko, we are arranging 500,000 tablets for our young audiences,” he confirmed.

Ahmed Al Mulla, Director, Saudi Film Festival, KSA, said: “This festival has witnessed six editions since it was inaugurated in 2008 and caters primarily to the youth, since our film industry is young and is mostly comprised of young professionals.”

He said that cinema has come a long way and is embracednow, as opposed to times when it was banned in KSA. Against this backdrop, he said his festival, which is organised in partnership with the King Abdulla Aziz Center for World Culture, has gone from strength to strength to reach, “20 million audiences across the world in 2020 when the festival was held virtually.”

The seventh edition of the event, which is slated to run in July 2021, will be “a combination of on-ground and virtual activities. Festivals in future will be built on the best of both formats I believe”, Al Mulla added.

Giulio Vita, Director, La Guarimba Film Festival, Italy, said: “We screen more than a 100 films and host a range of workshops for children and youth in a gorgeous open-air location in southern Italy. We also collaborate with UNICEF Italia to design and host our festival programme.”

“We are working on hosting an in-person festival this year in August, at least the film screenings, because along with the pandemic, what else is spreading is a sense of isolation and mental fatigue from being locked up in the house all the time. We intend to counter that in the safest way possible,” he added offering listeners a peek into the festival’s future plans.  

International collaborations expand children’s broader view of the world

During the concluding session, ‘Collaborations – Areas of Opportunities’, Nina Guralnick, Director of New York Children’s Film Festival, USA, said that “as films help children gain a better understanding of the broader world,” it was vital for educational institutions to use the medium to explore themes and character development as is generally done through reading and literacy skills.

She added: “Through films, children have the amazing opportunity to view a world they do not have direct access to. It allows them to make sense of experiences of those unlike their own; and by learning to embrace differences and instilling empathy, the ripple effect could pave the way for the creation of a more welcoming and understanding world.”

Nina Guralnick continued: “The world is a more complicated place than it was a year ago, and collaborations with international partners are vital to give children a broader view of the world, and to make sense of experiences of those unlike their own.”

Shadi Al Nimiri, Projects Specialist, Royal Film Commission, Jordan, outlined how the budget cuts in cultural institutions in the wake of the pandemic directly impacted the funding of films while the complexity of transitioning to digital platforms which requires both expertise and money have further slowed down the children’s film industry globally.

He added: “Films play a major role in shaping children’s personalities, and cinema builds bridges between different cultures. Unfortunately, in the Arabic world, we have very few festivals and films that target children. To boost Arabic content, we need to focus more on partnerships with like-minded entities such as SIFF that gives children the opportunity to watch unique films from across the globe.”

“Children’s films cannot be divorced from education or development,” opined Monica Wahi, Director, Southasian Children’s Cinema Forum, India, adding that “the exchange of knowledge is essential to enriching the culture of doing films. It is intrinsic to nurturing internationalism and humanity.”

The way forward could be hybrid festivals featuring a blend of online and physical events, she added. “Going digital has also expanded the audience any festival could reach, as it cuts across geographical boundaries.”

Monica Wahi continued: “I am infinitely hopeful about the role of art and film in children’s lives, especially in these uncertain times. Films allow them to see the world through their hearts, enabling them to make sense of what is happening around them.”