The Song of Flying Leaves by Armine Anda
School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF), earlier known as International Kids Film Festival, is back with their 7th edition, starting tomorrow. Unlike other festivals, SCIFF takes the festival to the audience.
The festival has collaborated with about 30,000 schools in India, of which over 25,000 are government schools. The films will be screened at the school premises. More than 20 private schools from Bengaluru including Delhi Public School, Sophia High School, National Public School and Global Academy for Learning are set to participate.
More than 80 films, a mixture of shorts and features, live-action and animated films, have been selected for the festival. The line-up features films in 15 languages from 20 countries. Schools get to pick the films they want to screen. “To make it to SCIFF, the film must have previously been selected for at least one film festival in the children’s category,” shares Syed Sultan Ahmed, founder and programming director of the festival.
Speaking about the kind of films that qualify as children’s films, Ahmed says, “Children’s films are specifically made with the intent of a child audience and from the perspective of a child. They’re all mostly fiction films with dreams and parallel worlds. The challenge with the world of content today is that they’re not allowing children to dream as much as they should. And that’s the main focus at SCIFF — to share dreams, ideas, challenges and stories of children.”