_{Heleen Rouw (Left, Director of Cinekid), Sara Juričić (Top right, Industry Head) and Hidde de Vries (Bottom right, Films & Series Head)}

Rouw’s goal is to ensure that children attending Cinekid, which takes place in Amsterdam between October 15 and 21, experience the same sense of wonder she felt all those years ago. She took over at the festival in 2020. This is her first post-Covid edition. “I am so happy that this year we can actually bring everyone under one roof in Amsterdam-North.”

There will be films from 54 countries, “a big spread” as Rouw puts it. "What Cinekid finds really important is to help filmmakers make films for young audiences. It is really important to help talent evolve,” the festival boss adds.

That talent doesn’t have to be just Dutch. The programme this year includes titles such as Elizabeth D. Costa’s Bangla Surf Girls, about three Bangladeshi surf loving teenagers, and Bill Afwani’s Kenyan-made drama, Safari, made in Swahili. There are also films from Papua New Guinea and Kyrgyzstan.

Cinekid opens with Sander Burger’s Totem**, which is produced by Volya Films. The film is about an 11-year-old Senegalese girl who has grown up in the Netherlands but whose family are threatened with being deported.

The budget is stable. The event has backing from the Ministry of Culture, the City of Amsterdam and has Creative Europe support. Nonetheless, Rouw acknowledges her worries about the current economic downturn. “To be honest, just like for the whole cultural sector, it is a really difficult time,” she says. “Our public will be struggling to pay their energy bills. We hope they can find their way back to the festival.” Advance ticket sales are encouraging, but the festival boss accepts that “people’s wallets are a lot more empty than they were before.”

Rouw points to Cinekid’s role in helping kids who may have had a tough time during the pandemic and have been left feeling isolated, depressed and, in some cases, even suicidal. “We really, really need to listen to children, take them serious and help them heal.”

One of the festival’s missions is to help “children to become world citizens,” she adds. Diversity and inclusiveness are at the heart of all the activities. Tickets are affordable. “Many cultures and backgrounds are reflected in the work we show,” Rouw says.

Cinekid isn’t just about films. Immersive, interactive works also feature prominently. The festival will again stage its long-running MediaLab in Pathé Amsterdam-North, which will allow visiting kids to experiment with VR, AI, workshops and apps. Meanwhile, the festival caters for everybody from toddlers to teenagers. “We always make sure that we’ve got a certain amount of films in every age group,” Rouw notes. “We really try to be diverse in that way as well.”

Masterclasses have a practical element. They deal with such subjects as voice acting, props, special effects and make-up. The aim here is to demystify screen culture and to open up pathways into the industry - to let the kids know that they too can one day have a career in this world.

One obvious challenge for the festival is the changing media habits of children. “The way people consume film and media, especially children, has changed a lot during the pandemic,” suggests Hidde de Vries, the short films supremo behind distribution and sales outfit Kapitein Kort who came on board as Head of Cinekid’s Film & Series team at the start of the year. “They [children] are watching a lot from home. They are very used to re-mixing. For example, when something is scary, they tap on the right side of the screen [on their phone] so they can skip the part.”

De Vries and his team are introducing various new schemes to get the children engaged with the films. For example, there will be special quizzes for every film in competition. Audiences will be asked questions before and after each film screens. The idea is both to entertain viewers and to educate them. For example, if they’re watching a title this year like the Tunisian drama A Second Life, there will be extra context on such matters as the history of the country, the current social situation and why people are fleeing for Europe.

The festival is holding a tribute to Dutch family filmmaker Burny Bos, the visionary behind such classics as Fidgety Bram* and Miss Minoes*. “I’m a 90’s kids and so I was young when he was making his prime films,” De Vries enthuses about the writer/producer who has near legendary status.

Cinekid is also an important industry event. Sara Juričić is in her first year of overseeing the professional activities at the festival. “Luckily, the team in position is fantastic. They really helped me transition,” comments the ex-Lemming and IFFR exec, who joined in July.

Twenty projects from 16 countries will be presented in the Junior Co-production Market (9 series and 11 films of which two are works-in-progress). Eighteen writers from 10 countries are participating in the Script LAB.

There will be an Industry Forum with panel sessions and keynote speeches on such subjects as the importance of protecting the legacy of iconic children’s media and to which new creative realms will AI bring us. The question of where do we stand with diversity and inclusion in children’s content will also be discussed during the panel with Sebastian Markt (Head of Berlinale Generation), Serlina Boyd (founder of Cocoa Publishing) and Amira Duynhouwer (writer/director).

“What we noticed this year is that we’ve started receiving more animation and series projects,” Juričić notes of a move away from traditional filmmaking. The reasons behind the change will be discussed in depth during the industry discussions.

“It’s a really broad programme. It is really going to cater to filmmakers, producers, sales, distributors but also to researchers of children’s media.”

Industry delegates include such well known sales companies as Global Screen, Best Friend Forever, Kinology and TrustNordisk. “The numbers really are rising for our guests,” Juričić says of the strong attendance figures achieved in spite of the many other markets and festivals that take place in the autumn. “We are still an interesting player and an interesting place for industry to come.”

One measure of the industry programme’s success is that at least half a dozen films showing in the official programme came through the Junior Co-production Market or one of the labs. This, then, isn’t just a festival which showcases the best kids’ screen content - it also helps that content to get made.

Cinekid Festival 2022 takes place in Amsterdam (main location) between October 15th and 21st and in more than 30 locations across the country between October 15th and 30th. For more information on Cinekid 2022, click here.
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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Production Incentive