16th Children's Film Fest: In retrospect

Hyderabad,Nov 25: With Golden elephants as the mascots greeting the kids during the 16th Children’s Film Festival in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, it was an annual filmy extravaganza organized by the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) from Nov 14 to Nov 19.Actor and CFSI chairperson Nandita Das who was in the city for the festival spearheaded the heated debates on the values for kids’ films and the need to make them. Das also insisted that Tollywood, which produced hundreds of films for the adults every year,had a poor showing when it came to children’s films. However, major film-makers from the city insisted during the Forum discussions that the Government should encourage production of children’s films and fund their distribution also among other things.

The launch of the festival on November 14 was chosen to remind the birthday of India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who conceptualised a vision for exclusive films for children and it was at his behest that the Children’s Film Society (1955) was constituted.As per the CFSI’s objective, says Sushovan Banerjee, the Chief Executive Officer of CSFI, the festival was being conducted to help organise production, distribution and exhibition of feature films.The films exhibited at the Prasad’s Imax and eight other screening venues organized by CFSI divided the screening schedule into International, Asian Panorama and General Screening. The jury comprised International, Asian and children jury.The four-day workshop beginning Nov 16 involved discussions on theatre, animation, story telling and child reporter.