Oscar-qualifying New York International Children’s Film Festival has announced the complete short film lineup for its 2019 event, which runs February 22-March 17 at theaters throughout New York, selected from more than 1,500 entries. Established in 1997, the acclaimed Festival is the nation’s largest for children and teens and will present new animated, live action, documentary and experimental shorts and features from 37 countries. Tickets are on sale at www.nyicff.org.
The Festival’s shorts programs are its most popular, with sold-out screenings of the eclectic collections representing the range of the year’s finest shorts: Shorts for Tots for ages 3-6, Short Films One for ages 5-10, Short Films Two for ages 8-14, and Short Films Three for ages 12 to adult. In addition to these general interest programs, the Festival presents thematically organized shorts programs, among them Girls’ POV, presented with support from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Sony USA Foundation, in which viewpoints from girls and women around the world are front and center, and Boys Beyond Boundaries, now in its second edition of short films redefining how boys can feel, think, and be, and offering expanded perspectives on gender.
The Festival continues to represent a strong showing of female filmmakers, with 46 female shorts and features directors in the slate this year, and approximately 50% of the Festival films overall directed by women. Further, a number of these filmmakers have crafted films that address timely issues by offering a broad array of short films that provide relatable, age-appropriate, thought-provoking ways to challenge gender stereotypes and expand the conversation and possibilities for kids.
“NYICFF has a longstanding, excellent Girls’ POV shorts program, but we also wanted to make a strong statement that the onus and dialogue should not appear to be directed exclusively to girls and women to change the cultural imbalance. We decided that we could bring innovative films into the mix to expand how boys are typically portrayed in media as well as challenge and expand the possibilities for gender representation and interaction across the board. Since introducing the program, parents and kids have shared how excited they are to have other models to explore and filmmakers have expressed how pleased they are to screen their films for young audiences and offer broader portrayals that the filmmakers themselves lacked growing up.”
This year’s jury includes Sofia Coppola, Zoe Saldana, Geena Davis, Taika Waititi, Kyle MacLachlan, Matthew Modine, Jorge Gutierrez, Uma Thurman, Nora Twomey, Jeffrey Wright, Melissa Cobb, Mark Osborne, Ira Sachs, Evelyn McVeigh, Elizabeth Ito, Hope Davis, John Canemaker and Madeline Di Nonno.
Shorts program selections below (* denotes animated titles).
Shorts For Tots For Ages 3-6
*Flipped (U.K.) — US Premiere, Hend Esmat & Lamiaa Diab
*Zog (U.K.) — East Coast Premiere, Max Lang & Daniel Sneddon
*The Pig on the Hill (U.S.) — New York Premiere, Jamy Wheless, John Helms
*Preschool Poets: Poem About All Different Things (U.S.) Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun
*Peas (Israel) — World Premiere, Oury Atlan
*Belly Flop (South Africa) — New York Premiere, Jeremy Collins, Kelly Dillon
*Fox and Hare (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) — U.S. Premiere, Mascha Halberstad
*Mi Abuelita (Guatemala) Giselle Perez
Slurp (France) — North America Premiere, Florent Hill
Short Films One For Ages 5-10
The Pen Licence (Australia) — World Premiere, Olivia Peniston-Bird
*Brooklyn Breeze (Colombia, U.S.) Alex Budovsky
*The Man with Birds (France) — New York Premiere, Quentin Marcault
*Small Spark (France) — World Premiere, Nicolas Bianco-Levrin
*1 Meter/Hour (France) — U.S. Premiere, Nicolas Deveaux
*Monsters Don’t Exist (Italy) Ilaria Angelini, Luca Barberis Organista, Nicola Bernardi
*Saturday’s Apartment (South Korea) — U.S. Premiere, Jeon Seungbae
*KUAP (Switzerland) — U.S. Premiere, Nils Hedinger
*The Basket (India) Suresh Eriyat
*Humus (Italy) — North American Premiere, Simone Cirillo, Simone Di Rocco, Dario Livietti, Alice Tagliapietra
*Preschool Poets: Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Crumpy, and Mr. Bumpy (U.S.) Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun
*Workout (U.K.) Joe Wood
*Raccoon and the Light (U.S.) Hannah Kim
Short Films Two For Ages 8-14
*Hors Piste (France) — New York Premiere; Léo Brunel, Loris Cavalier, Camille Jalabert, Oscar Malet
*Home Sweet Home (France, Switzerland) — North American Premiere, Chaitane Conversat
Fish (Spain) — New York Premiere, Javier Quintas
*Mogu & Perol (Japan) Tsuneo Goda
*Best Laid Plans (U.S.) — East Coast Premiere, John Morena
*6:1 (Russia) — East Coast Premiere, Sergei Ryabov
Spelliasmous (Cuba, U.K.) — East Coast Premiere, Ben Garfield
Horse’s Stone (Mexico) — East Coast Premiere, Cynthia Fernández Trejo
Short Films Three For Ages 12+
Yover (Colombia) — New York Premiere, Edison Sánchez
*Mega Trick (Germany) — East Coast Premiere, Anne Isensee
*Catmos (Russia) Katya Miloslavskaya
*Power (U.S.) — New York Premiere, Dana Sink
*Lost & Found (Australia) Andrew Goldsmith, Bradley Slabe
*Ride (Portugal) — New York Premiere, Paul Bush
Room for Change (U.S.) — New York Premiere, Kelly Ramundo & Dan Fipphen
Superheroes (Germany) — New York Premiere, Volker Petters
*Weekends (U.S.) Trevor Jimenez
*Preschool Poets: Bullets (U.S.) Nancy Kangas, Josh Kun
Boys Beyond Boundaries For Ages 10+
Building a Prosthetic Arm with Legos (Andorra) Austin Brown
Xavier (Brazil) Ricky Mastro
Juni (Curaçao) — New York Premiere, Sharelly Emanuelson
Granbad (U.K.) — New York Premiere, Annabel Vine
Stardust (Mexico) — East Coast Premiere, Aldo Sotelo Lázaro
Slow Dance (Sweden) Christian Zetterberg
Beauty (Canada) Christina Willings
Heebie Jeebies For Ages 10+
*And the Moon Stands Still (Belarus, Germany) Yulia Ruditskaya
*Floreana (Denmark) — U.S. Premiere, Lou Morton
*Hybrids (France) Florian Brauch, Matthieu Pujol, Kim Tailhades, Yohan Thireau, Romain Thirion
*Running Lights (Lithuania, India, Finland) Gediminas Siaulys
*Cerulia (Mexico) — New York Premiere, Sofía Carrillo
*Bless You! (Poland) — U.S. Premiere, Paulina Ziolkowska
*Toy House (Russian Federation) — New York Premiere, Natasha Danilevskaya
*Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems (U.S.) Erick Oh
Girls’ POV For Ages 10+
A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl (Australia) — East Coast Premiere, Tilda Cobham-Hervey
The Shadow of Cairo Egypt (U.K.) — North American Premiere, Tara Shehata
*My Body (France) Nicolas Nivesse, Sandralee Zinzen
Jesszilla (U.S.) Emily Sheskin
Hvalagapet (Norway) — New York Premiere, Liss-Anett Steinskog
Friends & Neighbors Netherlands: Program 1 For Ages 7+
*Passing By — North America Premiere; Job, Joris & Marieke
*Jonas and the Sea, Marlies van der We
*Mr. Paper Goes Out for a Walk — East Coast Premiere; Ben Tesseur, Steven De Beul
*Polska Warrior, Camiel Schouwenaar
*Heads Together; Job, Joris & Marieke
Friends & Neighbors Netherlands: Program 2 For Ages 10+
*Passing By — North America Premiere; Job, Joris & Marieke
Listen Netherlands, Astrid Bussink
*1Minute Nature: My Cat in Me, Stefanie Visjager & Katinka Baehr
*Emily, Marlies van der Wel
A Kiss — North American Premiere, Nima Mohaghegh
The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon — North American Premiere, Martijn Blekendaal
Festival Fast Forward /Flashback Recommended ages 7+ F
*A Town Called Panic (France/Belgium) —North American Premiere, Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier. New installment The Agricultural Fair plus three classic shorts.
