First competition films Cinekid Festival 2024 announced

The first competition films of Cinekid Festival have been announced. The 38th edition of Cinekid Festival opens Sunday afternoon, 20 October, at Pathé Amsterdam Noord with the world premiere of the animated film Benjamin Bat by directors Patrick Raats. Benjamin Bat also competes in the Best Dutch Children's Film and the Best Children's Film competition.

In the Best Children's Film competition, 12 films from several countries are competing for the grand prize. Norway is well represented with the films; Victoria Must Go (Gunnbjörg Gunnarsdottir), Listen Up! (Kaveh Tehrani) and Lars is Lol (Eirik Sæter Stordahl). In these three films, children struggle each in their own way with; their stepmother, their own identity and being different, respectively. The German films Greetings from Mars (Sarah Winkenstette) and WOW! A Message from Space (Felix Binder) focus on a space mission. Also, Sauvages (from Claude Barras, the creator of the modern classic; My Life as a Zucchini) is in the competition alongside the French Latvian-Belgian production Flow (Gints Zilbalodis), about a cat who manages to survive on a boat after a flood. Flow premiered at Cannes earlier this year and picked up several awards at the Annecy Festival. Many of these films, such as WOW! A Message from Space, Victoria Must Go, My Life as a Zucchini and Listen Up! are programmed throughout the country during the festival.

The films that can be seen during Cinekid Festival which have a chance to win the award for Dutch Best Children's Film, next to Benjamin Bat, are Panda Bear in Africa by Richard Claus and The Book of Everything by director Ineke Houtman, who won the 2022 award from the Cinekid Youth Jury for her film Matties. Films that have previously been shown in theatres and will be spotlighted again during Cinekid Festival are: Fox and Hare Save the Forest (Mascha Halberstad), Tummy Tom and the Lost Teddy Bear (Joost van den Bosch and Erik Verkerk), Liefjes (Natalie Bruijns and Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden) and Superkrachten voor je Hoofd (Dylan Haegens).

In the short film competitions, a distinction is made between films for children up to nine years of age and children from nine years of age. A total of 50 short films have been selected for this Cinekid Festival competition. Dutch and international short films are also featured here. The 16 Dutch short films competing include the graduation films Sjiek de Friemel (Davey Driessen) and Rups (Susanne Hagen). And the short, animated film, Quotum, by creators Job, Joris and Marieke whose film A Single Life was nominated for an Oscar. Quotum will premiere this month in Toronto during TIFF.

Like every year, the Youth Jury is screening films as well. The CJP Youth Jury will judge 5 films this year. After the winner of the CJP Youth Jury Award is selected, the award is handed out to the winner. Tickets for the film that the jury declares as the winner are already available now.

Cinekid Festival is the world’s largest festival for children’s film and media. It takes place during the autumn holiday from 19 October until 3 November at film theatres throughout the Netherlands and at the main location in Amsterdam-Noord. Premieres of (inter)national films and series are screened during the festival and there are daily master classes, workshops, and plenty of activities such as meet & greets with the makers and actors. The full programme will be online from 30 September. Ticket sales will also start then via cinekid.nl. Follow the latest Cinekid news on Facebook, Instagram or via the website.

Pre-sale of Benjamin Bat and the winning competition films have started.

Noot voor de redactie, niet voor publicatie  

Voor interviewverzoeken, perskaarten of vragen:  

Manon de Weerd
m.deweerd@cinekid.nl
+31 20 620 3354 of 06 817 90 714