( August 7, 2020 )
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) With an aim to encourage young storytellers to showcase their talent through creative storytelling, the Smile Foundation has announced a free online film festival where they will showcase films made by children for a young audience.
The digital event, to be held from August 14-16, is a joint collaboration between Smile Foundation’s International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFFCY) and Picture Paathshala.
The organisers said the aim of the online festival is to break the monotony of lockdown that children are going through as they stay confined at their homes due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival, which will be hosted on Facebook, hopes to reach approximately 100,000 children from various backgrounds and from across the globe.
The festival will feature a mix of handpicked films on topics relevant to young audiences, pep talks and filmmaking workshops.
“Children are our future, but they are the worst affected during this pandemic today, it is very important to ensure their good mental being. We have been innovating our programmes in all core areas to best serve the needs of the people, especially young people keeping in mind the current challenges.
“SIFFCY, our annual flagship Children and Youth film festival is no different. Now we are hosting a special online film festival that will showcase inspiring films made by children,” Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation, said in a statement.
He added that the festival will also hold various capacity building online workshops for children to motivate and constantly engage them.
SIFFCYFestival Director Jitendra Mishra said, “Films pedagogy is an effective and influential medium of educating and entertaining children. This combination of story-telling and entertainment is very effective.”