It’s not just a film festival, rather a means to encourage, engage and empower young minds,” says Jitendra Mishra, Festival Director, Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFFCY), as he gears up for the fifth edition of the festival. With 150 titles from 50 countries in over 30 languages, this edition has especially focused on two themes.
“We are bringing this year’s best cinema from across the globe to the Indian audience. However, the focus remains on two major topics – climate change and preserving the environment with family values. Rather than pointing out who is responsible for climate change, we have films addressing this global issue,” says Mishra. Thirty-six such films are by children from around the world. Cinema has the power to make an emotional connection that can be valuable to educate your children and the youth.
Thus, the festival also explores films on immigration; in fact, the opening film Binti by Frederike Migom (Belgium) addresses this issue. Apart from this, they have a diverse array of compelling feature films, documentaries, short films, includes a variety of films on issues like war and peace, friendship and more.
“As usual, this year’s festival will treat the audience with films from different genres, including both live-action and animation,” says Mishra, adding how the festival also caters to children and youth with films across different genres, highlighting various issues.
Presenting 16 films by film students from 10 countries, the festival will have a Next-Gen section to encourage the students who’ve created masterpieces. “Usually, only universities and film schools do such programmes, something that is absent in film festivals. This is an initiative to promote good cinema among the youngsters, our future filmmakers.”Another interesting aspect is the Yellow Carpet, a section that purely focuses on Indian cinema.
There are number of domestic films in the parallel cinema that haven’t received proper theatrical release but are well received across the world. “Since these films don’t get space in theatres or OTT platforms, we give them that. Every year, we select four-five domestic films to screen at the festival. It is an initiative to support independent filmmakers,” shares Mishra.
Renowned stars from across the world, including Kung Fu Panda director John Stevenson, will form the international jury and panel here.
When: December 9-15 Where: Siri Fort Auditorium