Owlet Charlie invites to the cinema

The birthday of the actor of all times and peoples, Charlie Chaplin, became the launching platform for the International Festival of Cinema Art for Children and Teenagers, Children Kinofest. Behind the scenes of the future cinema festival for children is the team Art-House Traffic headed by Denys Ivanov.

Owlet Charlie, which was created by children and named after the creator of the great image of a “small person,” Charlie Chaplin, became the symbol of the festival. Therefore a retrospective of Chaplin’s films will be one of the top events, except for the main program. It will include five feature films, City Lights, The Great Dictator, The Circus, Modern Times, and The Gold Rush.

At the press conference, which took place in the Kyiv Movie Theater, future festival center of Children KinoFest, three first films of the competition program with the target audience of boys aged over 10 were announced. The football drama Believe is a fiction story about legendary manager of the club Manchester United, who helps a hooligan who has taken a wrong road, to make his dream come true. The adventure film Belle et Sebastien is about a six-year-old orphan who together with a Pyrenean mountain dog tries to put Nazi who follow the fighters of the French Resistance Movement off the scent. Nono, Het Zigzag Kind (The Zigzag Kid) will help the audience plunge into the full of dangers and adventures world of a 13-year-old Nono, who dreams to be like his father, the best policeman in the world. The audience will choose the winner of the competition program: people will be able to vote for the best festival film for children at competition screenings in Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, and Odesa.

“This year,” director of the festival Denys Ivanov emphasizes, “in spite of all difficulties of this day, our team decided to launch a big film festival for children, when they will go to the movies for entertainment, and media education. Having studied the experience of children’s film festivals in France (Mon Premier Festival), the Netherlands (Cinekid), the Czech Republic (Zlin Film Festival), and other countries, we have tried to develop a concept, taking the best things which can be implemented in Ukrainian reality.”

The animation part of the festival will pay its due to The Pink Panther, because this “nice little kitty” turns 50 this year. The animated film Pink Phink which was released in 1964 won Oscar. The animated films block will also include the Lullabies of the World and specially compiled for children’s film screenings collections of animated and short films.

Every year the film feast for children will have a new envoy. In 2014 it is a singer and composer Jamala.

“I am glad to be in the team of Children KinoFest, because I love films for children and still watch them. I believe that we, the adults, are what we watched and read in our childhood.”