Industry Forum
Get up to speed with all the children’s film and media trends during the leading industry event for professionals, live in Amsterdam. The Industry Forum takes place on Tuesday 13 October 2026.
Cinekid Industry Forum 2026 invites the professionals from film and digital media to engage with discussions around the festival's theme. On October 13, expert speakers from different countries will share their insights on the children's media industry in the form of a keynote and thematic roundtables. The interactive format welcomes knowledge exchange, inspiration and meaningful connections between the makers, innovators, researchers, educators and the wide range of creatives attending Cinekid for Professionals.
Opening Keynotes
How do stories bring people together, and what makes a shared experience fun? Opening keynote speakers Samya Hafsaoui and Linda Duits explore connection and community from two different perspectives.
Samya Hafsaoui “Finding (Online) Community with Your Storytelling Power”
Even in a crowded digital world, sharing your story and creative process can help you build a meaningful connection with an audience. Samya explores how that connection can support your work from development through to distribution.
Linda Duits “Glue: The Magic of Fun Explained”
What happens when we have fun together? Linda explores why shared enjoyment matters to communities and how film can create the conditions for it to thrive.
Who is it for?
All industry professionals in children’s film and media who want to get up to speed with the latest trends, developments, opportunities, and challenges in the industry.
Thematic Roundtables
Roundtable 1: Celebrating Together: Continuing the Keynote Conversation
Get the chance to sit down closely with the Industry Forum keynote speakers, as they expand on their talks and share depper insight into their work.
Roundtable 2: The potentiel of cross-media
Youth culture no longer moves in straight lines. A teenager might discover music inside a game, pick up history from a meme, or stumble into philosophy through a YouTube fan edit. Cultural meaning now takes shape across differentmedia, industries, and points of contact. Understanding it requires tools built to follow, decode, and act on that movement.
Roundtable 3: Immersive for Beginners
Makers, researchers, and experts will introduce the guiding principles and ideas behind designing immersive experiences — from XR to VR and beyond. Whether you’re a maker, curator, or educator looking to create your first immersive project — this is the place to start!
Roundtable 4: Creating a shared language: Inclusive FIlm & Media
Join voices at the forefront of inclusive storytelling, redefining what it means to create for all audiences — spanning art made with young Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, film that centers underrepresented experiences, and immersive new media that invites audiences into entirely new worlds.
Roundtable 5: How Sustainable Is the Future? New Practices for Makers and Festivals
What do we mean when we talk about sustainability? How can festivals and cultural organisations improve their sustainability practices — and what can others learn from that work? This roundtable brings together sustainability experts and producers to discuss best practices, challenges, how they’re being addressed, and what takeaways other organisers and makers can apply to their own work.
Roundtable 6: From Story to Universe: New Financing & Audience Paths for Kids’ IP
This session explores new approaches to financing and audience-building for kids’ and youth content — from strategic thinking on IP and universe-building, to a real-world look at the opportunities and lessons that come with turning a series into an IP.
Roundtable 7: Making an Impact Outside of the Cinema
How can we use film as a tool for social impact — to educate and inspire kids outside of the cinema? Professionals from educational fields will share their insights on their work.
Roundtable 8: Reconsidering Audience Expectations: Content, Platforms and the Assumptions Behind Them
Children’s media has long operated on a set of unwritten rules — about what’s too dark, what’s too disruptive to established habits, and what a “good” story should look like. This roundtable brings together voices questioning those rules from different angles — content, platform and narrative structure — and asks: how should we go about reshaping content, habits and the assumptions behind them?
When & where
Tuesday, 13 October
13:30 - 14:30 - Industry Forum Opening - Cinema 8
14:45 - 17:30 - Roundtables - Cinema 1
Pathé Amsterdam Noord
