THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Great Dictator by the legendary Charlie Chaplin, the Disney classic The Lion King, which spins an endearing tale, movie veteran Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali are all set to open in the theatres on Monday as the city hosts the first ever International Children’s Film Festival of Kerala (ICFFK).
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the fest at Tagore Theatre at 12 noon.
Organised by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare along with Chalachithra Academy, Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) and Balasahithya Institute, the week-long fest is set to be a carnival of movies.
Bicycle Thieves and Home Alone are the movies which will be screened in the ‘Classics’ category while the 1991 children’s movie Abhayam will be screened in the ‘Directors in Focus Category’. Ali Ghavitan’s White Bridge, which has garnered international acclaim, Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven, and M Manikandan’s Kaaka Muttai are other noteworthy films that are set to be screened on the inaugural day.
As many as 4,000 delegates, including children from tribal villages and orphanages, will participate in the fest. Festival autos have been arranged to ferry the delegates. Twenty-three movies will be screened in the international category. 140 movies will be screened across five cinemas viz Tagore, Kairali, Sree, Nila and Kalabhavan at the fete which will bring some of the finest movies ever made to the theatres.
The film fest will be replete with workshops, cultural programmes and open forums. Over the years, there has been a huge demand from children to be part of a film festival which has prompted the launch of ICFFK. It will be organised in the coming years as well during the vacations and is intended at introducing world cinema to the children, the organisers said.
The movie categories include Classics, Directors In Focus, Best of Indian Children’s Films, Malayalam Short Films and Documentaries, and Malayalam Feature Films.
140 Movies will be screened at the International Children’s Film Festival of Kerala
500 Children from orphanages and 500 kids from tribal communities will take part