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About the idea

Submit your film to the 10th Kids Kino International Film Festival!

If you are the director of a film aimed at a young audience, share it with us. Send your animation/documentary/live-action film, including full-length and short-lenght, to our programmer: agnieszka.sinicka@nowehoryzonty.pl.

Please note that we will contact only the selected projects. We are working on the programming of the 10th edition of the festival until 31.05.2023.

Kino Dzieci (Kids Kino) is an International Film Festival addressed mainly to the viewers at the age of 4-12 and their families & guardians. From the very begining, the idea behind the festival was to make valuable worthwhile movies available to the general public. All the productions have been carefully selected considering their educational, artistic and production values.

The audience of the Kids Kino IFF has grown to over twenty Polish cities, from the begining of the festival in 2014 till today. The viewers of each edition get acquainted with international productions nominated in the Main Competition that have not been presented to wider distrubition. The entire film program, grouped in sections, is displayed in Warsaw and Wrocław only, while the most important sections, led by the Main Competition movies, are also presented in the remaining eighteen festival cities.

The best Kids Kino IFF is always chosen by viewers from all over the country. Thanks to the festival, selected films appear on Polish cinema screens, including European and international productions – films, animations, documentaries and series for kids.

We believe that such actions have a significant impact on shaping young viewers as well as on the development of the film production market directed to the young viewers. However, Kids Kino IFF is not only about movie screening. Thanks to the workshops and accompanying events, the festival has become an opportunity for meetings and discussion. Kids Kino IFF goes beyond the actul week of the festival duration and it is present for the viewers throughout the following year, introducing the best films of the festival to theaters for the following months.

The 9th edition of the Kids Kino International Film Festival – in cinemas from 24 September to 2 October and online from 6 to 23 October

The New Horizons Association is happy to invite you to the 9th edition of the Kids Kino International Film Festival – a cinema celebration directed to young viewers and their guardians. Once again, the festival will take a hybrid form, which guarantees access to a wide selection of children-friendly high-quality films for almost an entire month.

From 24 September to 2 October, the festival will be held on-site in 20 towns and cities in Poland. Next, from 6 to 23 October, the festival films will be available to watch online.

Kids Kino IFF is addressed to children over 4 years old and their guardians. Since 2014, that is the beginning of the festival, its main mission has been about providing wide audiences with access to quality films of exceptional educational, artistic, and creative value.

The festival line-up is based on 12 sections presenting a variety of themes and genres. One of the sections is specifically dedicated to the children’s guardians. The programme includes a number of documentaries, live-action films, and animations. There will be a new section this year, focusing on Norwegian documentary productions for young viewers. The Road to the North – Documentaries from Norway section is co-financed by the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Every year, Kids Kino prepares a special section to present the cinematography of a selected region. This time, we are going to show you A Postcard from the Netherlands. This section is partnered by the Netherlands Embassy in Warsaw.

As part of the Main Competition, you will be able to watch the most interesting international productions that have not been released in Poland yet. The jury will evaluate films in this section as well as in two other categories: Discoveries Competition and Short Documentaries Competition. Like in previous editions, members of the audience in all the festival locations will also have their chance to assess the films and choose the best title of the Kids Kino festival.

Moreover, the festival agenda will include: meetings with film directors and child actors, introductions to films prepared by educators and experts, workshops, and a variety of online resources. The form of all the accompanying activities will be adapted to the safety rules in place.

The 9th Kids Kino IFF is organised by the Education Department of the New Horizons Association, which specialises in cinema for young audiences in a number of fields. Apart from the festival, the Association develops numerous film education projects as part of the New Horizons of Film Education programme. Other activities and events organised by the Association include film distribution in cinemas and on the New Horizons VOD platforms; Kids Kino Lab and Kids Kino Docs – script development workshops focused on feature, animated, and documentary films and series for kids and teenagers; and meetings with representatives of global film industry.

This year’s edition will be again accompanied by Kids Kino Industry: an international co-production forum for the creators of films and series for young audiences. Every year, this event is attended by more than 300 representatives of film industry, such as Netflix, Canal+, and Nickelodeon. For the participating filmmakers, the forum is an opportunity to find future investors, co-producers, distributors, sales agents, and TV broadcasters that can help them implement their ideas for films or series. The event will take place on 27–30 September, in Warsaw and online.

Facebook: facebook.com/kinodzieci

Instagram: instagram.com/kino.dzieci

The winners of 9. International Film Festival Kids Kino are

Main Competition

Award: Too Old for Fairy Tales

For the original script, the sense of humor, the lightness of the story while at the same time the difficult road that the hero had to overcome. For being Waldi the Strong alongside an unexceptional aunt and for wanting to go for ice cream with them.

Special mention: Bigman

For the hero’s passion for sports despite his disability and for the power of friendship.

Short Documentary Competition

Award: Our Orphanage

For the chicken baked in batter together, for reading fairy tales in the evening, and for the hugs that their caregivers bestowed on them every day. A superbly constructed, moving, thought-provoking film that shows who a child is and who an adult should be, who has the responsibility for them.

Special mention: Free as a Bird

When an authentic, charming heroine appears, seizing all the attention, empathy and sympathy of the viewer, a person stays with her. If she speaks with her strong, wise voice, but also hesitates to finally perform an act of courage, a person pulls away to give her his vote.

Film Discoveries Competition

Award: Comedy Queen

A grieving child, after the loss of a parent, is a difficult subject that we often don’t want to bring up and can’t talk about. It is all the more difficult when the emotions experienced by the child – such as anger and rage – are at odds with what we adults would expect from children, from their grief. That’s why we were so captivated by the film “Comedy Queen,” because it puts at the center the emotions of an adolescent girl trying to put the world back together after the death of her mother. For its emotional truth and for its successful attempt to show how an adolescent child can experience grief, we award the top prize to the film “Comedy Queen.”

Special mention: Icarus

An honorable mention in this year’s edition also goes to the visually beautiful film “Icarus.” The jury appreciated the idea of telling the commonly known myth of the Minotaur, as well as that of Daedalus and Icarus, according to the rules of classical animation, but reading it anew, shifting the emphasis to those elements of the story that we did not appreciate before.

European Children’s Film Association

Award: Too Old for Fairy Tales

This heart-warming coming-of-age story could happen in any backyard, maybe even yours. We meet Waldi, at an unusual and hard to grasp moment, somewhere between being a child and a teenager. The cocoon of childhood is slowly bursting, and Waldi is faced with the choice of whether to hide back or stand up for himself and take responsibility for his own happiness. Kristoffer Rus guides Waldi lightly and sympathetically through this uneasy time and surrounds him with adults who, although not without flaws, are supportive partners for the protagonist. There is no denying that everyone would like to have an aunt like Aunt Mariola. In addition, the film is a unique voice in the discussion on body-positivity.

The Film Educators Group (to ZEF):

Award: How I Learned to Fly

The ZEF Film Highway to Europe’sAward for the film “How I Learned to Fly” for its exceptional lightness in portraying the world of today’s younger teenagers and its accurate diagnosis of children’s coping skills in difficult situations involving relationships (friendship and love), taming illness, and working through the traumas (including those of war) of older generations.

Special mention: Yuku and the Himalayan flower
The ZEF Film Highway to Europe’s honorable Mention for the film “Yuku and the Himalayan flower” for its subtle portrayal of the transience of life, unflagging motivation in pursuit of goals, and uninterrupted readiness to grow.

Arthouse Cinemas Association (SKS):

Award: Yuku and the Himalayan flower

A beautiful fairy tale, sparkling with a fever of colors, where music is an integral part of it, becomes the best medicine and flows through the successive extraordinary adventures of the little mouse, giving rhythm to the film’s story. The animation, which draws from the best graphic patterns of the French comic strip, creates its own separate world and surprises with solutions also on the story level.

European Children’s Film Association

Award: Too Old for Fairy Tales

Authors’ Association ZAIKS

Award: Too Old for Fairy Tales

For sensitivity in telling an important story. For skillfully combining commercial qualities and a satisfying artistic form. The jury also appreciated the performances of both professional nnd first-time on-screen actors.

Audience Fern Flower Award: JerryMaya’s Detective Agency – The Riddle of the Scorpi