All good things must come to an end, and so did the 18 International Children’s Film Festival. The week-long fete bringing cultures across the world to the doorstep of the city’s children ended on Wednesday.
“I feel sad that it’s over. We should have such festivals more often. I watched films everyday for the last three days, and it was so much fun,” said Yashwant, a boy from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Golconda.
The biennial carnival also brought the city to national prominence. “We loved Hyderabad. The city has temperate climate. Also, we liked being part of a crowd, as we would be otherwise forced to spend three-fourths of the year in isolation,” said Cyril Reynolds, a Seventh grader from Lonavala’s Ryewood International School.
Classics shown
Nearly 200 films were screened. A new category for animation was introduced in the competition section for the first time. Also enthralling children was a section for celebrating 100 years of cinema, as part of which, evergreen Indian children’s classics were shown.
Films from countries not represented hitherto, found place this time. So the children could see movies from Republic of Belarus, Georgia, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Morocco, Latvia, Taiwan, Chile, and Greenland.
Liked and cheered by most kids were also the films made by ‘Little Directors’, included as a separate category of competition.
Children being children, they would be mighty happy for meagre mercies. However, there remain many issues which need to be addressed. Lack of permanent venue is certainly a let-down, felt many. Complaints were heard about children other than delegates not being allowed into the main venue, Prasad’s Multiplex.
Also, not all the films were being screened at every theatre, depriving many children of choice. Though some schools were allotted slots for select movies, most others, especially government schools, were kept out in the bargain.
