Cinekid Festival 2024 programme announced

Cinekid Festival proudly presents the programme of its 38th edition. Children can make their own plans this autumn holiday, because you do you… and taking control is how best to experience Cinekid Festival this year. New series, world premieres and games and interactive installations in the biggest MediaLab can be seen and experienced this autumn holiday at the main location at Pathé Noord in Amsterdam, as well as in other cities around the country. The MediaLab can be visited in as many as eight other cities and Cinekid films and series can be seen at a total of 40 cinemas across the Netherlands. Cinekid Festival will celebrate the start of the autumn holidays on 20 October with the world premiere of Benjamin Bat in the presence of directors Patrick Raats and Sarah Sutter and voice actors Fedja van Huêt and Stephanie van Eer as well as numerous other film lovers and Dutch celebrities. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema will open the festival that day at Pathé Noord in Amsterdam. 

Inspiring and quirky films and series are the red thread through the festival. Children are challenged to form their own ideas about the world they live in. Among the films and series selected for screening in all cinemas across the country are: the short colourful film compilation The Mouse Family (Célia Tisserant, Arnaud Demuynck, Rémi Durin, Marjolaine Perreten) about animals living together in the forest, the VPRO series Hein (Anna van der Heide) with a star-studded cast and an unusual protagonist who can communicate with the dead. Two feature films run in the national programme Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds (Benoît Chieux) in which two sisters delve into the fantasy world of their favourite book and Juniors (Hugo P. Thomas) a comedy that asks questions about how far you can go to get the latest playstation. 40 theatres in the Netherlands and one cinema in Curaçao are celebrating their own festive Cinekid Festival.

This year, the often underexposed role of voice actors gets a special place in the festival. Every year, the programme includes many animated films, series and short films in which voice actors play a crucial role. This year, Cinekid turns the spotlight on the voice actors. Sometimes the voice actors are even leading in the telling of a story, for instance, the voices of Fox and Hare (Mascha Halberstad) were recorded first before the animation of the series and later the film were created. To make films from all parts of the world accessible to Dutch children, the so-called dubbing process is of great importance. For many years, mother and daughter Hexspoor have been providing live dubbing at Cinekid Festival. Marcia has been active as an introducer for Cinekid since 1987. In 1991, she gave birth to daughter Jerusha who followed in her footsteps in 2016. Meanwhile, Jerusha has also been working as a voice actor during the festival for many years. During Cinekid Festival, voice actors are put in the spotlight on several occasions.

Another family that has a special role during this year's festival is Rick Paul van Mulligen's rainbow family, together with his husband René van Bakel, their children and mother Nina de la Croix, they will decide which film gets this year's Best Dutch Children's Film award. The films competing are Benjamin Bat, (Patrick Raats, Sarah Sutter), Fox and Hare save the Forest (Mascha Halberstad), Panda Bear in Africa (Richard Claus), The Book of Everything (Ineke Houtman), Tummy Tom and the Lost Teddybear (Joost van den Bosch and Erik Verkerk), Sweeties (Natalie Bruijns and Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden) and Superpowers for your Mind (Dylan Haegens).

As always, there is also the MediaLab where children of all ages get to play with new technologies, tell their own stories and try the coolest games. In a world where we mirror others more than ever, it is sometimes hard to be yourself. But what does it mean to be yourself? Walking your own path, making your own choices. Discovering who you are yourself and daring to be delightfully so. You be…you!

In the MiniLab, little ones can show a robot the way in the Robokoppies workshop or help a brave donkey on its way by sticking stickers in the game A Tiny Sticker Tale (Steve he Duran / Ogre Pixel). All over the MediaLab you will find stubborn robot plants, Desert Daydream (Air Giants), soft cuddly robot plants with a will of their own. Or do you still manage to bend them to your will? They come to life through touch, movement and sound. And what does your ideal digital self really look like? In Avatopia (Roos Groothuizen) you can work on your ideal virtual avatar, in Digital Mirror (Alexandra Lexi6 Sigmarsdóttir) you can look at your own digital self in the mirror and in the workshop Fashion Filter Factory you design your own digital outfit and put it on right away!

Pathé Amsterdam Noord hosts the largest Cinekid MediaLab, but smaller versions of the MediaLab can also be experienced at Forum Groningen, Lux Nijmegen, LantarenVenster Rotterdam, MIMIK, Deventer, Concordia Enschede, Filmhuis Alkmaar, Chassé Breda and Schuur Haarlem.