Cinekid Directors LAB will take place in Amsterdam for the fifth time in April 2025. The selection includes seven directors with projects from nine countries of production, including Colombia, marking the first non-European project in the Directors LAB.

Phillip Donnellon will take part with The Reef, a German-Estonian-Irish co-production; director Viko Nikci will work on the popular Irish theatre play adaptation Holy Mary; Swiss director Natascha Beller will work on her pool-side Splish Splash Forever!; whilst the Nordic region will be represented by Norwegian director Liv Karin Dahlstrøm, who participates with her coming-of-age drama Sanna.

For the first time the Directors LAB selection includes a project from outside Europe, Colombian director Giselle Geney will work on her project The potato flower, having developed the script during the Cinekid Script LAB (2021-2022).

The continued support of projects that have participated in Cinekid for Professionals’ programmes is a key factor in the selection. Other former participants include: the Serbian feature Hunnic Summer, directed by Nedeljko Kovačić (Junior Co-Production Market 2024) and the upcoming Dutch feature Movies showing nowhere directed by Martijn de Jong (Script LAB 2024-25).

Heading into its fifth edition, Cinekid Directors LAB provides vital, specialised training in filmmaking for young audiences. With a special focus on casting working with child actors under the personalised guidance of a directing coach, the LAB has proven an essential programme for directors of children’s content.

Over the past five years, the LAB has established itself as a productive hub for independent children’s cinema, developing some of the genre’s most celebrated recent festival successes such as: Sea Sparkle (dir. Domien Huyghe, Directors LAB 2021, premiere Berlinale Generation 2022), Kiddo (dir. Zara Dwinger, Directors LAB 2022, premiere Berlinale Generation 2023), and I Accidentally Wrote A Book (dir. Nora Lakos, Directors LAB 2022, premiere Cinekid 2024). Of the 25 projects that have been workshopped in the LAB so far, over half have been released or are in production or pre-production.

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