Kolkata International Children’s Film Festival:
As an initiative taken by the Honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal – Smt. Mamata Banerjee, the Shishu Kishore Akademi has been organizing the Kolkata International Children’s Film Festival (KICFF), every year since 2011.
Structured exclusively for children and juveniles, keeping in mind their interests and likings, the festival showcases a plethora of films from across the globe, which includes not only feature films, but animation films, shorts and documentaries, amongst other educational films. The festival creates waves of excitement amongst the children, giving them a platform that brings forward good cinema to them and as they witness the magic on screen, a process of learning takes place. This is the time when the children accompany their parents and go hopping around theatres, watching the best of world cinema, from classics to contemporary masterpieces.
In between the monotonous regularities of school, tuition and daily homework, the festival comes as a breath of fresh air at the year end, tied up with the festivities of Christmas and New Year. Not just films, the festival provides a forum for them to educate themselves through workshops and quiz competitions, thus imparting knowledge and becoming a medium that amalgamates education with entertainment.
The festival has stepped into its’ eighth edition this year, and within the short span of the past 7 years, it has garnered very good reception. The festival is now a gala event spread across 9 venues throughout Kolkata. This time again, the City of Joy will see young footsteps with great mindsets treading down the thoroughfare with jubilation and full of spirit, through this 8 daylong celebration from 20th to 27th January, 2019. This is not just a festival; it is a spectacle, an experience of a lifetime.
