Films of various hues compete at the Children’s International Film Festival in Hyderabad

A variety of children films drew huge crowds at various theatres in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Telangana during the fifth day of the ongoing 20^th Golden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival of India (ICFFI) 2017.

Many children have shown interest in animation films and movies in the Little Director’s section including ‘Pixi Post’ and the Gift-bringers’ which were screened during the festival. In this category, children’s films are mde by children themselves.

Padmini Nagulapalli, Jury member for animation category, is very thrilled to  participate in ICFFI 2017. He said “this festival has inspired the children and taught them how films are written and narratted to the audience.”

Another film that caught the attention of children was a silent movie “Ehsas” directed by a 13-year-old boy from Patna in Bihar, Praveen Kumar.  The three-minute film about food waste received a standing ovation after the screening. It told a story of a boy who throws his lunch at school every day because he craves for junk food. However, one day he realises that there are many children who do not always get   meals every day and they often sleep hungry. Then he changes his attitude.

Child film maker Kumar said, “We made this film in a week’s time but the most difficult task was to get expressions from the actors because it is a silent film.”

Another film which made an impact at the festival was Sabash Biju (Bravo Biju). This film is a tribute to former Chief Minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik who was known for his leadership qualities. The movie talks about a 11-year-old child who lives with his widowed mother in a village and supports his family by selling milk. This film was screened twice at the festival.

German film crtic Wolfgang Mundt, Jury member in the live action category at the ICFFI 2017, emphasised that  Indian moves are full of emotions and there is a good story connect. He said he was very impressed with 3 indian films, Little God, Let me join you and Beelay’s Diary.  “This festival is one of the greatest in the world,” he reacted.

Director Alani Sridhar, who has directed children’s film “Doo Doo, Dhee Dhee,” is full of excitement with his film entering the festival. This film cautions younger generation to stay  in touch with their roots and not get lost in the digial stage. Three child artists figure in the film.

Iranian film ‘Houra’ was also screened at this festival. It focusses on the acute water problem faced in Iran. The story is about a teenager who struggles to maintain a garden where  he lives with his family. Surrounded by desert, the garden gets dried  up due to acute shortage of water. However, the boy struggles to preserve the garden because it is the only memory of his mother who had passed away due to water crisis.

ICFFI drawing huge crowds, including Festival Directors from abroad

The week-long 20th Golden Elephant International Children’s film festival of India (ICFFI)  has been drawing huge crowds in theatres but its most striking feature is that children from all over the country have come here to see the films and among them are kids from Himachal Pradesh who have never been to a theatre because there are no cinema halls near their houses.

In this festival, organised by Children’s Film Society, India, (CFSI) and Telangana Government, a few children, who have never been to a theatre, are viewing films in cinema halls and staying with film makers and Jury members at the Park Hotel, the stay venue of the festival. Thus they are exposed to cinema environment and get an opportunity to interact with Indian as well as foreign film makers.   

However, the best category in the festival is ‘Little Directors’ in which films for children have been made by children themselves. Production of flms  by children have been started as an activity. We (CFSI) teach children how to express their stories. We keep pace with formats, platforms for consumption. We now have a web series called V3 which will be launched soon on our website and FB page.

India has 16-18 languages. However, Cinema is a language which no one teaches. Many kids are the first generation learners.Only a lot of privileged students get an opportunity to experience Cinema.

The impact that Little Director’s section is having would soon have an exponential curve.. These children will find a way to express themselves. I feel thilled to hear what film makers have to say about Little Directors. There is a whole spectrum of kids we (CFSI) are catering to. CFSI has a catal;ogue of over 260 films in 15 different languages. In every theatre, we have put up a stall where CDs of CFSI films are sold and the response has been encouraging.

Another extra-ordinary feature of this festival is that for the first time many Festival Directors have come from abroad. When we invited them, they immediately responded saying that would attend the festival which only shows that Golden Elephant Festival has gained popularity in the last few years since I joined CFSI as the CEO.

Another important aspect of this festival is that out of the 1402 entries which we received this year, 30 foreign films were those which had received many international awards and have been nominated in more than  50 film festivals all over the world. Thus Golden Elephant festival (ICFFI) has become well known all over the world for screening quality films.      

According to our daily schedule, many films in various categories were screened in theatres in Hyderabad and all over Telangana state.  Even today, workshops and Open forums were held in which delegates and children participated wholeheartedly.

20TH ICFFI ALL SET TO ROLL OUT RED CARPET FOR INDUSTRY STALWARTS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

Friends, in my previous blog, I had shared details about the 20 th Golden Elephant – ICFFI, being held from November 8 to 14 at Hyderabad. Throwing more light on one of the largest and most colourful children’s film festival in the world, I would like to reiterate that the 20th Golden Elephant aims to screen high quality International children’s cinema which children may not get to see anywhere else.

No doubt, the festival promises to be a grand event and aims to attract large number of children audience along with film personalities from around the world. In 40 years, over 20 editions, this festival has only gone from strength to strength.

The last three editions for which I have had the privilege of being the festival director has seen exponential growth in terms of curatorial content and participation of best films from every nook and corner of the world. From an average of 300 to 400 entries in previous editions, I would like to inform you that while the 18th ICFFI in 2013 received 894 entries from various countries, the following edition on 2015 received 1204 entries and now, for the 20th ICFFI, we have received a phenomenal 1402 entries from 109 countries.

At CFSI, our major focus is to make this a truly international film festival for children and by children by conducting training and workshops for children in film making. This festival will consider the children’s view points and create a universal theme from children’s interest as well.

Around 40 Festival Directors of various International Children’s Film Festivals and children’s film makers from across the world will converge at the 20 th ICFFI. My main aim in taking children’s films made in India to global audience is also to bring revenues and market the content.

My efforts during the previous editions of ICFFI to make it a truly international festival has borne fruit. And, my recent travel to the world market, where I attended various film festivals and my meetings with top film makers and festival directors has added to getting more people to the festival.

I was invited to attend MIPCOM, the global market for entertainment content across all platforms, and MIP Junior, the world’s showcase for kid’s programming, held in the French town of Cannes.

Attending the BFI London Film Festival was another fruitful visit, where I met some of the well- known film makers and festival directors and had discussions for partnerships for Golden Elephant and other areas of collaboration. At the Cinekid Festival at Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to meet Sannette Naye, former CEO of Cinekid. Our mutual interest in children’s films and discussions thereof led to Naye agreeing to work wholeheartedly for enhancing the creativity of children in India through the medium of films especially the rural children, taking the Little Director’s initiative to logical conclusion. I also had a fruitful interaction with the current CEO of Cinekid, Floor van Spaendonck.

Both my earlier and recent visits have resulted in congregation of the global stakeholders including film makers and festival directors at this year’s do, which will be a maha sangam for children’s content.

Look forward to sharing more such successful partnerships and collaborations from across the globe, which helps in making top quality children’s films as well as marketing them aggressively on international platforms.

What made #19ICFFI a landmark?

Dr Shravan Kumar looks back at the week gone by at this edition of the children’s film festival in Hyderabad

Over 2.5 lakh children saw our films
We reached out like never before as we set a new attendance record for ourselves: Over 2.5 lakh children watched the set of films we laid out in the 19^th ICFFI 2015 in Hyderabad.  The programme content and structure was widely acclaimed by the public and critics both. The fact that jury member Satish Kaushik even postponed his flight to stay back and watched every film like a student made it an absolute pleasure! So much so that everybody is already reaching out to us and our celebration in 2017.

Raising relevant questions at open forums
The open forums at the 19^th ICFFI 2015 had a lot of interesting debates – be it with policy makers or theater people or even the film makers who brought up very relevant queries and concerns. We ensured that all questions found answers or atleast were documented to be reviewed by those concered.

Be it 360 degree marketing of films, where we learnt lessons from the commercial success of Chotta Bheem through Samir Jain of Green Gold or film maker Nishit Takia who shared his difficulties faced on distribution in India: “It is truly difficult to get screens in India. Our film in China was screened in 12000 screens simultaneously. Children’s cinema hasn’t taken a form of paid entertainment in India.” And I understood his heartbreaking dilemma!

Moderator and curator Ashish S K – a film maker in his own right rounded it aptly when he said the digital platform is changing the way Indian content is being consumed and on the type of screen “We have to now make episodes/videos for 7 minutes rather 22 minutes to hold their attention!”

Making workshops count!

The workshops held for 5 days at Jawahar Bal Bhavan brought in the best quality of teachers to the forums. As I did my rounds, I was happy to watch the progress and interact with the young children delighted at this opportunity. And also glad to have an answer to a question raised by the Class X student of Mahboobia Girls Government School in Hyderabad – Bushra Begum. Bushra who is in love with animation, was thrilled with the animation workshop set out in our schedule, practicing even after class ended and even sharing her lessons with her neighbours and friends. She asked me with much concern, “How can I continue this learning after the workshop?” Luckily, I was able to reach out to the IT secretary in Telangana to look at a revised way to include animation in the school curriculum. And this truly is the power of these interactions – where the voice of the children can reach those in power easily without getting lost in translation.

The Jury fought with us for more awards!
The members of the jury fought with us to award more films and people. They complained that some of the films, especially in Live Action category deserved more awards. We had to double the number of awards in the Little Director’s Category! They were persistent in their endeavor hounding me and the team every day last week to give out more awards. “How can we do our duty and be fair to the content and the outstanding movies we have seen?” was what I heard from every single jury member.  It was truly the final salute to the excellent curation of films done internally by the CFSI team who watched 1204 submissions to pull out the best. Hear film director Satish Kaushik also share his experience on video

The celebration continues
The number of requests received from people all over the country for us to ensure they see the movies is phenomenal. Our plan at CFSI is to start with Kashmir and take the films and the workshops to Kanyakumari – because the celebration of films and the celebration of children can never end!

Hope you will join us too in them and spread the mandate of promoting every child's right to entertainment across the country. 

“We need to tell our own stories”

CEO Dr Shravan Kumar emphasizes the importance of ethnic content

What came first?The egg or the chicken?
A similar question is always posed for most problems and queries across the world.

Is the product more important? Is marketing more important?
Is the distribution important? Or can a film/content ride on its own legs using a digital platform?
Do we need to follow trends? Or how can we continuously create trends?
Do we have our own style? Or go with one that brings you instant fame or commercial success?

These are universal questions. They apply as much to any business -- as they apply to children’s films. Which is what our open forums have addressed in the last few days through our meets with government, jury, film makers, media and the audience at the 19^th ICFFI 2015.

Festival Director Dr Shravan Kumar with the Telangana Jury

I am a firm believer of getting the basics right. To me, that means telling our stories and our content in the most authentic manner. It means finding our own voice, our own style and not be worried about where the world is progressing. My belief has been proved right with Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya which we produced and created not in the western Disney and Cartoon Network style – but in our own format.

We did market it – sent it out to film festivals and upped the ante to how far we could push the screen. The results were delightful. So much so, that we were given a red carpet invite to TIFF Kids in Toronto, where most people pay to show their films. We even won an award, following which it was easier to get audiences to see it both at home and abroad.

What that one experience re-affirmed to me is that story telling is universal but marketing needs to be both global and then local. The experience of this film brought many lessons in fore and perhaps a winning formula too of creating a film, winning awards and allowing the great content to be visible.

In that format, digital platform and events like film festivals like ICFFI and NCFF both have a strong role to play side by side. While our content goes abroad and depicts our language, customs and heroes – and this is possible with the play on digital –we also find the digital platform and events play a strong part in enhancing visual literacy of our own children.

Moments of our childhood are encapsulated in story telling sessions by our grandparents, uncle, aunts and parents. They were key to our growing as we heard the narrative. Now it’s time as we live in nuclear families, we also expose our children to the visual narrative by allowing them to watch meaningful content… of meaningful Indian content!

Which is why this biennial celebration of children’s films is so close to my heart and we knock on every door possible to garner support and eyeballs for it – so it reaches the end consumer – the children who are growing way too fast! 

Nothing but the children

How do I know our 19^th ICFFI 2015 is going well?

It is by the compliments it brings from the children. My biggest applause has come from IX grader Maryam Fatima in the middle of all the melee on day 3 who wrote in to us on Facebook: “ICFFI is doing an amazing job. Thanks for the fabulous experience.”

It’s also when volunteers from St Mary’s College who have 40 of their students take a week off from college and have been on their feet nonstop ushering, managing audiences, guests as they take in films from across the world share, “We wish we had seen some of these films in our childhood…”  that you know it’s a good job done.

When friends from the media write stories on a group of 8 kids coming all the way from Patna as a part of a children’s association to sample and enjoy the spread we have laid out in Hyderabad across 13 screens, I know we have accomplished the mission we set out for – to open worlds, perspectives for children in our little way.

I watch 40 kids enthusiastically wait for theater and TV personality Lalit Parmanoo to teach them their next lesson in Abhinay Yog to overcome their inhibitions as a part of the workshop sessions we have organized at the 19 ICFFI 2015. I watched Priya, Apeksha and others from Pomegranate films help children find wings with animation lessons and script writing and I cannot be happier to see their response

The love showered by the children at the 19 ICFFI has been phenomenal. Every director has been surrounded by the kids. Be it Kim-Sung Ho after the screening of his film How to Steal a Dog or the genteel director of the Golden Horse Renis Kalnaellis. They are bombarded for autographs and pictures even though the two don’t speak the same language. 

I couldn’t help smiling myself as these kids surrounded me and asked me for autographs on Day 2 as I walked around and took in their feedback. That appreciation matters even more than any reams of paper written about us – because they are so honest with their love and affection!

As I watch parents run up, debate which movie their child must watch and on which screen, it humbles me of the opportunity we have to entertain, create and push kids to think beyond their usual boundaries and their usual toys. It is this healthy debate, this conversation, the discussion post movies that matters the most and shows us of the experience we have created for these kids.

Our aim to reach more people pushes us to try harder – be it colouring the entire city with hoardings with the kind help of the Telangana Government – or even request talented actresses like Kareena, Karisma Kapoor and Tabu to join us at the festival to provide their encouragement and support. It’s also made us ensure every single foreign director and delegate enjoys their time in India. Be it Helene Comeositos and Carlos Zarco sampling the cuisine and watching other films themselves! Or our jury members like Satish Kaushik, Shilpa Shukla and others working tirelessly behind the scenes to watch as many films and share their comments with us!

And the curtains open...

Dr Shravan Kumar, the CEO talks about yet another edition of the International Children’s Film Festival of India.

What goes into making a successful film festival? I always wonder every two years before the curtains open as I watch the activity around me.

In my mind, no festival works without the joint effort of people. To start with my team that works tirelessly behind the scenes as they camp in Hyderabad which has become our favourite haunt. The other important consideration is 80 participating and over 1200 film makers that also tirelessly support us much after their film has been made so as to ensure the film makes it to being screened at the festival.

The other support that comes to us behind the scenes over 100+ volunteers from colleges in Hyderabad. They work in ushering teams, delegates, kids, parents and ensuring the necessary manpower for 7 days that a film festival – this size-- has now begun to need. However, our biggest bolster comes from the government of Telangana which has whole heartedly in every way supported our cause.

However, the most important people in the festival remain the children and our extremely diverse audience. We work very hard to ensure that their voice and their tastes come through on screen as we bring to fruition intelligent and interesting cinema that may open a whole new world and perspectives. The post screening discussions are so invigorating that they not only inspire the kids but even me to learn and grow more.

However, nothing beats the joy of children learning, thinking, feeling and being open in their hearts to discussions and watch their minds being opened to the world. In my opinion, the ICFFI and The Golden Elephant remains the best gift we can give them on Children’s Day. Children have a lot of expectations from us and the ICFFI is a conscious effort to deliver what we can making this a hub for young film makers.

A lot of other film festivals have also started coming up around us. We don’t view them as competition. To us, every film fest serves a different objective yet with a common goal: to showcase good content with a perfect blend of international and national content! To us, our prime motive of providing children entertainment that’s real is key – to highlight to them human infallibility, unheroic characters and the daily banalities of life in the country and across the world. 

The proof of our success will lie as we open our doors today. Like they say in acting speak, we hope to break a leg! 

Clicking with Children’s Content!

It’s never been more important than now to make films for children. As young minds all over- be it in a metro city or in a village in India, or even one in another country – children are being exposed to newer channels of entertainment than ever before. Very little of this content has been created only keeping their needs in mind.

Adding layers of complexity to this entertainment is the environment around them – some of it holding out strains of dysfunctional families, others dealing with an environment of stress, strife and difficulty. Competitions in schools keeps things busy and the race of marks is making childhood more fraught than enjoyable.

Which is why stories told for children, by the children and now also of children remains our biggest focus at CFSI. Every child in the world needs to find his story told or find his voice echoed on screen. If we at CFSI are able to execute that – bring disparate voices from across the world to expose our children to the best of content – we would have achieved our milestone of creating, showcasing and bringing regular content for children.  

Our attempt with the 19thGolden Elephant Festival is also to move beyond the ordinary. Which is why our theme is “Digital India” – keeping in touch with the digital revolution now touching children’s lives and also staying abreast with the times. The idea remains to speak in their language, engage with them through innovative and diverse films – produced nationally and internationally.

This explains our desire to also curate the films internally. Given our sixty years of in-depth understanding through our activities around creating & disseminating wholesome entertainment for children, this year we have decided to undertake this ourselves after different stages of selection from over 1200 entries received from 80 countries via the digital platform. 

Furthermore, we have entered into a direct agreement with YouTube to upload CFSI films on their platform, so as to reach a wider, global audience. Our play through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has also become stronger, only so that we can be on any big or small screen that can entertain a child!

Here’s hoping they click to get through right to us. That will be our biggest endeavor.

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SHRAVAN KUMAR

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER