The New York International Children’s Film Festival was founded in 1997 to support the creation and dissemination of thoughtful, intelligent, and provocative movies for children and teenagers. Its key goals are to facilitate the development of the art of film; to promote high-quality films for children, teens and families; to introduce its audience to new films, including limited-release movies; to cultivate an appreciation for arts; to stimulate discussion among viewers and the film community.
What started as a modest weekend-long film event has since grown to become the largest children’s film festival in North America. The NYICFF runs over four weekends in March, screening more than 100 short and feature films from different countries at venues throughout New York City. Alongside film screenings (including American and international premieres) the festival program features retrospective programs, filmmaker Q&As, workshops and seminars, parties, and special educational events for high school students. Every year, the NYICFF draws over 25,000 attendees.
The NYICFF is a competitive, Academy Award qualifying film festival. Every year, a professional jury consisting of famous actors, filmmakers, animators and academic and industry leaders picks the best films for young audiences in the festival’s innovative, diverse and artistically excellent selection. The festival categories include Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short (Narrative) and Best Live Action Short (Documentary).
As we’ve already mentioned above, the NYICFF is an Academy Award qualifying event. This means that winners of the festival’s juried awards are eligible for Academy consideration in the Best Live Action and Best Animated Short Film categories.
In addition to the annual flagship event in March, the New York International Children’s Film Festival presents year-round programming that includes the Best of the Fest touring program designed to bring international and independents films for children and teens to theatres, as well as special events in New York City, such as premieres, sneak previews of major releases, encore screenings, special screenings, exclusive filmmaker Q&As and panels, parties, and more.
The NYICFF also presents an educational program comprising Film-Ed Field Trip screenings for grades K-8, Film Camps, partnership with schools, and educator resources for teachers at every grade level.
In 2021, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo: nyicff.org
