Report of 1st ICFF

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL

ICFF-2009 was a splash of children’s films for full one week at CMS World Unity Convention Centre Lucknow from 07th to 13th April 2009.

More than 250 Films from 27 countries were received out of which 154 were selected for screenings and 30 of them viewd for the best Feature Film, Best Animation Film,ds and Best Short Animation Film along with the Jury and Critics Award. The films were awarded to the tune of Six Hundred Thousand Indian Rupees

The inauguration of ICFF-09 held on 7th April 2009 was a glittering ceremony marked by the presence of high dignitaries, officials and internationally acclaimed eminent jury members Mrs Vijaya Mulay, Mr Nenad Dukic, Mr Dan Wolman, Mr Mike Pandey and Mr Jahnu Barua. The chief guest of the opening ceremony was Shri Desh Deepak Verma, Principal Secretary Entertainment Tax and Registration. With the unrolling of the scroll and unveiling of the ICFFF-09 logo, he declared the ICFF- 2009 open and also released the festival brochure. The opening film of ICFF-09 was the Austrian feature film Mozart in China. Other films were screened simultaneously at the main auditorium and four other mini auditoriums

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL

PINKI, who is the protagonist of the OSCAR winning documentary SMILE PINKI graced the Children’s Film Festival on 9th April 2009. She was flanked by Dr Subodh Kumar Singh who had operated upon her cleft lip.

Nearly 40,000 children from different schools of Lucknow witnessed the film festival and gave rave reviews about it.

The chief guest of the closing ceremony was eminent filmmaker, fashion designer and painter Shri Muzaffar Ali. He gave away the prizes to the film awardees. Purav Bhandare, the child actor of the film Tahaan was the Guest of Honour.

According to Mr Jagdish Gandhi the Festival Chairman, the main objective of organizing the Children’s Film festival was to help nurture meaningful cinema viewing habits in the society besides inculcating a global vision so necessary amongst children of today’s world.

According to Dr. Varghese Kurian the Festival Director, the goal of the film festival was to screen films based on child psychology to educate and at the same time entertain children.

ABOUT THE JURY MEMBERS

Mr Nenad Dukic

Mr Nenad Dukic is from Serbia. He has been a film critic for Serbian Radio Belgrade National RTV Network. He has also been the member of critic’s juries at leading international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and many others. He is also the member of the Board of the Yugoslavian Film Academy from 1995.

Mr Dan Wolman

Mr Dan has been making films for the last forty years and has won many awards. Among his films are “The Dreamer” “Hide and Seek, Floch and many others.

Mrs Vijaya Mulay

Mrs Vijaya Mulay, an educator and filmmaker was born in 1921. She is a pioneer of the film society movement and has been the president of the Federation of Film Societies of India. Currently she is on the advisory committee of the National Film Archive of India. She has been conferred with innumerous awards such as Vikram Sarabhai Award and V Shantaram Award.

Mr Mike Pandey

Born in Kenya and trained in London Film School in the UK, his contribution to India cinema is immense. He was recently honored with the Award for Cinematographer Association WICA. His films are mostly based on Wild Life. He has bagged three Green Oscars at Wild Screen for his films.

Mr Jahnu Barua

A graduate of Science from Guwahati University and Diploma in Cinema from Film & TV institute of India, Pune, Jahnu Barua has won National Award nine times. His film Halodhia Charaye Baodhan Khai has won him international recognition.