FIPRESCI and Children Films

Today’s children are the potential cinema audience of tomorrow. This realisation is anything but new – but it does not always lead to meaningful consequences. FIPRESCI would also be well advised to focus more on children’s films in the future, for example by adding more juries at the relevant international children’s and youth film festivals. In any case, there is no lack of interested potential jury members from all over the world. However, the term “children’s film” has always been controversial. Some countries do not use it at all, in other countries it is sometimes seen as a stigma, be it for market considerations or because of allegedly inferior quality.

The term in the sense intended here refers exclusively to films for children and not to films about children that are intended to appeal only to an adult audience (e.g. parents or guardians).

Children’s are naturally not exclusively, aimed at a young audience between the ages of about six and 14 to 15. Productions specifically for pre-school children or for young adults are subject to other criteria and are not eligible for selection. The films in question cannot be reduced to individual genres or themes. But they should refer to the everyday realities of children, in principle everywhere in the world, as different as these are. This can even be the case with animated films, fantastic films or fairy tales. What is important is that these films have the courage to dare to do something new, to take up unusual themes and cinematic approaches. That they take their audience seriously and sometimes expect something of them without completely overtaxing them.

Good stories and dramas already testify to great craftsmanship. It is said to be even more difficult to make a comedy. The top class, however, which is unfortunately achieved far too seldom, lies in making a good quality children’s film that appeals directly to children as well as to adults. It is precisely such films that are essential for the future of cinema. FIPRESCI should therefore see them as an important pillar of cinematic art and to give them the attention they urgently need.

Katharina Dockhorn
©FIPRESCI 2025