New York International Children’s Film Festival 2010

Here’s something really great for you to look forward to, and if you are going to be in New York Feb26-Mar21 I really suggest having a look at everything going on here.

Opening Night Premiere – NYICFF 2010 opens with the US premiere of Summer Wars, the scintillating new feature from rising Japanese anime star Mamoru Hosoda. The event takes place FridayFriday reviews

, Feb 26 at 6:00pm, at the Director’s Guild of America Theater, and includes a Q&A with director Mamoru Hosada and a catered reception.

The critically acclaimed New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF) kicks off its 13th season Feb 26-March 21, 2010 at six New York locations, with ground-breaking, fun-filled and thought-provoking new works and special events for ages 3-18. The festival includes 100 new films from around the world with: opening gala, major feature film premieres, special filmmaker presentations, NYICFF’s award-winning short films programs, children’s film production workshops, a celebrity benefit event, a 50-year French animation retrospective, audience voting, and the NYICFF Awards Ceremony. Full schedule and tickets to all events are on sale now at www.gkids.com or 212-349-0330.Opening Night Premiere – NYICFF 2010 opens with the US premiere of Summer Wars, the scintillating new feature from rising Japanese anime star Mamoru Hosoda. The event takes place Friday, Feb 26 at 6:00pm, at the Director’s Guild of America Theater, and includes a Q&A with director Mamoru Hosada and a catered reception.

NYICFF 2010 Overview

Dates: Feb 26 to Mar 21 – Full schedule available on www.gkids.com or call 212-349-0330

Locations: DGA Theater, IFC Center, Symphony Space, The Times Center, Cantor Film Center, Scholastic Theater

New Feature Premieres – For film credits and full film descriptions visit www.gkids.tv/intheaters

•Summer Wars – Opening Night Film – US Premiere. NYICFF 2010 opens with the US premiere of the scintillating new feature from rising Japanese anime star Mamoru Hosoda a film whose “dazzling fluency of motion and untethered brilliance of invention makes the usual fantasy anime look childish and dull” (The Japan Times). (Ages 9-adult)

•In The Attic – East Coast Premiere. The newest film from a stop-motion master Jiri Barta is a diabolically inventive tale, four parts Toy StoryToy Story reviews and one part David Lynch, as a group of abandoned toys stage an ambitious rescue of their kidnapped friend. (Ages 8-adult)

•Mai Mai Miracle – US Premiere. Sumptuously animated film about friendship and the passing of childhood evokes a happy/sad nostalgia for the endless days of summer and is a sensitive portrayal of a young girl at the transition between childhood and adult. (Ages 8-adult)

•Turtle: The Incredible Journey – NY Premiere. This awe-inspiring nature film follows the personal story of a single loggerhead turtle, one of hundreds of adorable, vulnerable babies born in the sands of the Florida coast, as she grows into a strong-willed adult braving the six-thousand mile journey that has been the species’ perilous ritual for millions of years. (All Ages)

•Eleanor’s Secret – US Premiere. In this colorfully animated film perfect for our youngest audiences, the characters from classic fairytales and children’s books come alive to help a young boy learn to read an ancient spell, which will preserve the stories for future generations of children. (Ages 3-8)

•The SecretThe Secret reviews of Kells – Filmmaker Event – Q&A with director Tomm Moore following the screening. MagicMagic reviews, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes, in a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Film has taken top prizes at festivals worldwide and is shortlisted for a 2010 Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature.

•Oblivion Island – US Premiere. Exquisitely detailed 2D backgrounds combine with modern 3D character designs in a dazzling animated adventure that plays like AliceAlice reviews’s fall through the rabbit hole into a world of topsy-turvy, anime dream-logic. (Ages 7-Adult)

•Little White Lies – US Premiere. Dreamlike, darkly atmospheric visuals straight out of the German Expressionist tradition create a fable-like feeling both timeless and foreboding in this thought-provoking and highly-engaging parable about how lies, big and small, can accumulate and create unexpected consequences. (Ages 9-adult)

•Stella – In this wonderfully tender, autobiographical coming-of-age story, a precocious young girl made wise beyond her years from a bohemian background is forced to adjust when she enters a wealthy private school. (Ages 14-adult)

Special Events

•Opening Night Gala – US Premiere of Summer Wars with director Q&A and Reception – Ages 9 +

•NYICFF Awards Party – Awards Ceremony, Best-of-the-Fest Film Screenings, Reception – All ages

•Film & Food Benefit and Auction– Film screening, Celebrity Performance with Brooke Shields, Jeffrey Wright, Lauren Ambrose, Reception, Activities – All ages

•Get a Grip Workshop – Meet the experts and go behind the scenes of film production – Ages 6+

•I’m No Dummy Workshop – Film plus ventriloquism class, with Jay Johnson (Soap) – Ages 8+

•Film Production Workshops – Children conceive, write, storyboard, and shoot their own short films. Workshops offered in clay animation, 2D animation, film acting and more. Ages 6 to 16

NYICFF Short Films in Competition – Featuring the best short films from around the world, for ages 3-18. Six short film programs organized by audience age. All audience members complete voting ballots to select the winners, presented March 14 at the NYICFF 2010 Awards Ceremony.

•Shorts for Tots – Ages 3-6

•Short Films One – Ages 5-10

•Short Films Two – Ages 8-14

•Flicker Lounge – Ages 12-adult (films for teens and adults only)

•Heebie Jeebies – Ages 10-adult (spooky, bizarre and freaky films, not for the faint of heart…)

•Girls’ POV – Ages 10-adult (Girls’ Point of View – films for ‘tween and teen and girls)

The Animauteurs: 50 Years of French Animation

Breathtaking and rarely screened animated films from French auteurs Paul Grimault, Sylvain Chomet, Rene Laloux, Michel Ocelot, Serge Elissalde, Jacques-Remy Girerd, Jean-Francois Laguionie, Jerome Boulbes and more.

•Le Roi et L’Oiseau (The KingThe King reviews and the Mockingbird) – A rare screening of Paul Grimault’s gloriously imaginative animated masterwork, with subtitles performed live by Brooke Shields, Jeffrey Wright, Lauren Ambrose, and additional guests TBA. (All Ages)

•Kirikou and the Sorceress – The first feature from Azur & Asmar director, Michel Ocelot, is one of the most stunningly beautiful, poetic and entertaining films ever created for children, and ushered in a modern renaissance in French feature animation. (Ages 5-adult)

•Fantastic PlanetFantastic Planet reviews – This psychedelic landmark in feature animation by Rene Laloux has become a cult classic, influencing decades of pop culture with its trippy sci-fi tale of humans enslaved by an alien race of super-intelligent blue giants and treated as dumb pets. (Ages 11-adult)

•Gwen & the Book of Sand – NYICFF is proud to present a rare screening of the only existing English subtitled print of Jean-François Laguionie’s trance-like masterpiece, a breathtaking work of art that is as close to pure poetry as cinema can get. (Ages 11-adult)

•Raining Cats and Frogs – The award-winning first feature from director Jacques-Remy Girerd is the charming tale of an old sea captain who becomes a modern day Noah when a torrential flood washes over the planet and the animals from the local zoo escape into his floating house. (Ages 7-14)

•Amuse-Bouche: Recent French Short Animation – This short film program offers a tantalizing collection of unique and delicious works from some of France’s most creative and influential animators, with selections ranging from the funny, to the sublime, to the whimsical and absurd. (Ages 8-adult)

COMPLETE NYICFF 2010 JURY:

•Adam Gopnik – Author, essayist and New Yorker contributor

•Frances McDormand – Academy Award-winning actor (FargoFargo reviews, Almost FamousAlmost Famous reviews, North CountryNorth Country reviews)