New York International Children's Film Festival
Encyclopedia
The stated mission of the New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) is to promote intelligent, passionate, provocative cinematic works for ages 3–18 and to help define a more compelling film for kids.
The film festival
's programs are built upon the philosophy that young people possess an emotional, intellectual, and creative acuity that is rarely reflected in the mainstream children's media. The festival finds and presents a kaleidoscopic assortment of exciting, entertaining, diverse, risk-taking, stimulating films not available in theaters, on television, or on DVD. The festival pushes the boundaries of style and subject matter to help redefine and elevate what is meant by "film for kids."
screened six times for an audience of 600. Since then, it has grown into the largest festival for children and teens (ages 3-18) in the country. NYICFF has presented 1100 films since 1997 for children and teens, including premieres of films by Hayao Miyazaki
, Michel Ocelot
, Katsuhiro Ōtomo
, Danny Boyle
, Josef Fares
, Serge Ellisalde, Jean-Pierre Ameris
, Santosh Sivan
, Anders Klarund, Hiroyuki Morita
, and countless others.
The annual three week long festival takes place in March at various New York City
theaters.
; and the NYICFF retrospective Rare Seuss
on Film, featuring restored archival prints of And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.
Starting in the summer of 2007, NYICFF secured rights to forty short and feature films for a "Best of NYICFF" touring program. After a successful test run, the "Best of NYICFF Tour" is currently being booked into theaters around the country for a second year. NYICFF and their producer, GKIDS, have also launched a test program in partnership with the Clearview Cinemas chain, bringing movies the first weekend of every month to Clearview theaters in Bronxville, New York and Red Bank, New Jersey.
NYICFF Jury: Susan Sarandon
, Academy Award winning actress; John Turturro
, renowned American actor, writer, and director; Frances McDormand
, Academy Award Winning Actress; James Schamus
, film historian, screenwriter/ producer for Brokeback Mountain
, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
, The Ice Storm
and president of Focus Films; Gus Van Sant
, director of Drugstore Cowboy
, My Own Private Idaho
, Good Will Hunting
; Matthew Modine
, Academy Award winning actor; Christine Vachon
, Academy Award winning producer of Boys Don't Cry
, Velvet Goldmine
, Happiness
; Rob Minkoff
, director of The Lion King
, Stuart Little
, Mr. Peabody and Sherman; Adam Gopnik
, author/ New Yorker magazine columnist; Lynne McVeigh, NYU Professor of Children's Film and Television; Evan Shapiro, executive vice president and general manager of Independent Film Channel.
The film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
's programs are built upon the philosophy that young people possess an emotional, intellectual, and creative acuity that is rarely reflected in the mainstream children's media. The festival finds and presents a kaleidoscopic assortment of exciting, entertaining, diverse, risk-taking, stimulating films not available in theaters, on television, or on DVD. The festival pushes the boundaries of style and subject matter to help redefine and elevate what is meant by "film for kids."
Background
The NYICFF began in 1997 with a single program of short filmsShort subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
screened six times for an audience of 600. Since then, it has grown into the largest festival for children and teens (ages 3-18) in the country. NYICFF has presented 1100 films since 1997 for children and teens, including premieres of films by Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
, Michel Ocelot
Michel Ocelot
Michel Ocelot is a French writer, character designer, storyboard artist and director of animated films and television programs and a former president of the International Animated Film Association...
, Katsuhiro Ōtomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
, Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, Josef Fares
Josef Fares
Josef Fares is a Crystal-Simorgh winning Swedish film director with Assyrian/Syriac origin. His brother is the actor Fares Fares, who has appeared in many of his films....
, Serge Ellisalde, Jean-Pierre Ameris
Jean-Pierre Améris
Jean-Pierre Améris is a French film director and screenwriter. He has directed eleven films since 1993. His film Poids léger was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.-Filmography:...
, Santosh Sivan
Santosh Sivan
Santosh Sivan is an Indian cinematographer, film director, and producer who has worked in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi cinema....
, Anders Klarund, Hiroyuki Morita
Hiroyuki Morita
is a Japanese animator and and director. He has worked as an animator on projects such as Akira and Lupin III. He is best known for working as director on the Studio Ghibli film The Cat Returns as well as doing key animation for the Studio Ghibli production My Neighbors the Yamadas and in-between...
, and countless others.
The annual three week long festival takes place in March at various New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
theaters.
New developments
Beyond the three week festival in the spring, the New York International Children's Film Festival has recently become a non profit organization that provides sustained year round programming with monthly presentations at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village, and Symphony Space on the Upper West Side. Films presented include: the US premiere of Michel Ocelot's Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest; the restored French animated masterpiece, Le Roi et l'oiseauLe Roi et l'oiseau
Le Roi et l'oiseau is a 1980 traditionally-animated feature film directed by Paul Grimault...
; and the NYICFF retrospective Rare Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
on Film, featuring restored archival prints of And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.
Starting in the summer of 2007, NYICFF secured rights to forty short and feature films for a "Best of NYICFF" touring program. After a successful test run, the "Best of NYICFF Tour" is currently being booked into theaters around the country for a second year. NYICFF and their producer, GKIDS, have also launched a test program in partnership with the Clearview Cinemas chain, bringing movies the first weekend of every month to Clearview theaters in Bronxville, New York and Red Bank, New Jersey.
Behind NYICFF
NYICFF Selection Committee: Eric Beckman, festival founder; Emily Shapiro, festival founder; Marshall Weber, experimental filmmaker/artist; Chelsea Bailey, PhD, Educational Media Consultant. Works are pre-screened by appropriately aged children prior to final selection.NYICFF Jury: Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Academy Award winning actress; John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
, renowned American actor, writer, and director; Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
, Academy Award Winning Actress; James Schamus
James Schamus
James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter The Ice Storm and producer Brokeback Mountain, and is CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company whose films have included Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The...
, film historian, screenwriter/ producer for Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film. An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen...
, The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm is a 1994 American novel by Rick Moody. The novel was widely acclaimed by readers and critics alike, described as a funny, acerbic, and moving hymn to a dazed and confused era of American life....
and president of Focus Films; Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
, director of Drugstore Cowboy
Drugstore Cowboy
Drugstore Cowboy is a 1989 crime drama directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost, based on a novel by James Fogle. Matt Dillon stars in the title role, and Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and William S. Burroughs are also featured. Drugstore Cowboy was filmed mainly around...
, My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves...
, Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
; Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
, Academy Award winning actor; Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector and daughter of noted photographer John Vachon....
, Academy Award winning producer of Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry may refer to:* Boys Don't Cry , a one-hit wonder British studio band known for "I Wanna Be a Cowboy"* Boys Don't Cry , a 1999 film starring Hilary Swank and Chloë Sevigny* Boys Don't Cry , a 1980 album by The Cure...
, Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 British/American drama film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.Sandy Powell received another Academy...
, Happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
; Rob Minkoff
Rob Minkoff
Robert R. "Rob" Minkoff is an American filmmaker. He is known for directing the Academy Award–winning animated feature The Lion King ....
, director of The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
, Stuart Little
Stuart Little
Stuart Little is a 1945 children's novel by E. B. White, his first book for children, and is widely recognized as a classic in children's literature. Stuart Little was illustrated by the subsequently award-winning artist Garth Williams, also his first work for children...
, Mr. Peabody and Sherman; Adam Gopnik
Adam Gopnik
Adam Gopnik, is an American writer, essayist and commentator. He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker—to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism—and as the author of the essay collection Paris to the Moon, an account of five years that Gopnik, his wife...
, author/ New Yorker magazine columnist; Lynne McVeigh, NYU Professor of Children's Film and Television; Evan Shapiro, executive vice president and general manager of Independent Film Channel.