23/02/2007

While the animation film festival Anima is in full swing in Brussels (see news), the 19th European Film Festival for Children (February 17-25) is taking place during the school holidays in Antwerp and Bruges, offering the younger generation an opportunity to discover several European films.

Olivier Ringer’s Belgian feature Pom, le poulain gallops into competition along with French titles Call Me Elizabeth [+see also:
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film profile] by Jean-Pierre Améris and Grégoire Solotareff and Serge Elissalde’s light-hearted and sentimental animated film U [+see also:
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Other titles lined up are Cristian Schwochow’s German title Marta and Her Flying Grandfather, Danielle Proskar’s Austrian film Karo and God Himself [+see also:
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Northern Europe has also not been forgotten with Swedish helmer Josef Fares’s Zozo [+see also:
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This programme complements several shorts series, two of which are on animated film, and is decided by a double jury. The first jury is divided between the two cities and includes 12 children aged seven to ten. The second is made up of professionals, Belgian in particular, such as director Hans Herbots (see news) and actors Wouter Hendrickx and Pol Pauwels.

In addition to school screenings, numerous workshops will take place to allow children to discover cinema and animation. One programme is dedicated to films for the very young and includes Estonian directing duo Heiki Ernits and Janno Pöldma’s Lotte from Gadgetville [+see also:
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The film is distributed in Belgium by Jekino, who specialise in children’s films and are celebrating their 30th anniversary at the festival with special screenings.

Lastly, a section aptly entitled Cut the Crap, aimed at young teenagers, will screen Finnish helmer Klaus Härö’s Mother of Mine [+see also:
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(Translated from French)