The week-long celebration of Good Cinema – SIFFCY (Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth ) opened on the 11th of December 2017 at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi. SIFFCY 2017 showcased 120+ critically acclaimed films from more than 50 countries to an audience of over 20,000 children & youth. More than 10 different kinds of capacity building and professional workshops (FREE) were hosted during this week.

Celebrated Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon inaugurated the festival this year, along with #SIFFCY Chairman Santanu Mishra (Co-founder, Smile Foundation), Festival Director Jitendra Mishra, and international Jury members Arend Agethe (Germany), Michal Mathus (Israel), Gert Hermans (Belgium), Judita Soukupova (Czech Republic), and Chantal Bowen (Canada).

Smile Foundation’s Film Festival is an effort to sensitize children and youth through hand-picked quality films, with assortment of various topics starting from gender equality to environment, family values, friendship, aspirations, dream, self-confidence and importance of education from across the globe.

KEY ACTIVITIES THIS YEAR:

1.FILM SCREENING (FEATURE FILM, SHORT FILMS, DOCUMENTARIES)

More than 120 meaningful films made for children & youth including feature films, short films and documentaries from across the globe were screened in 4 different auditoriums during the 7days extravagant film festival under five categories –

• International Competition
  Handpicked films from across the globe, selected for the supreme finesse of their art, the most compelling storytelling and highly inspiring depiction of world issues, compete with each other under the category. These critically acclaimed films have already travelled to prestigious international film festivals and have numerous nominations and awards to their credit. Film including Village Rockstars , Cloudboy, The day my father became a bush & Ballad from Tibbet.
• The Yellow Carpet
  SIFFCY is a celebration – of exuberant childhood, of youthful energy, of positivity and progressive change. And the one colour that captures it all is YELLOW. So, we have ditched the traditional red carpet and are all set to welcome our special screenings on the Yellow Carpet instead. These entries call for a space of their own and we are more than happy to extend them this privilege.
• 70MM Smile
  The category showcased exceptionally crafted pieces of good cinema from the world over that bring together an eclectic mix of cultures, beliefs, values and behaviours. Passionate film makers create magic on the screen with spell bounding stories and enchanting characters, leaving their young audience asking for more.
• Next Gen
  Young, aspiring filmmakers unleashed their talent to the fullest as they showcased their best under the category. All they needed is an appreciative audience and a stage – bubbling with energy, courage and oodles of confidence, the film-making trainees and students breathe in their fresh ideas to make some very good films. SIFFCY is a platform to promote good cinema and these upcoming stars of the industry are setting the right tone, choosing to make films with a message. Kudos to them!
• Take One
  Children have a unique way of looking at the world and their perspective is often unclouded by any preconceived notions and conceptions. SIFFCY is not just about cultivating a culture of viewing good cinema among our children, but just as much about imbibing an appreciation of the art of filmmaking and its larger purpose in their young minds. This one was an innocent surprise! The topic was SIFFCY GOES GREES.

2. FILM MAKING WORKSHOP FOR AND WITH CHILDREN (Topic: Tell your OWN STORIES).

UK based organization ‘Films without borders’ collaborated with us to host a workshop with less-privileged children from Smile Foundation centres. These children might not be so privileged but nothing can deter them from dreaming big and aspiring to achieve their goals. They made a film during the workshop and named it ‘Delhi Dreams’ which was premiered in SIFFCY on 14th Dec 2018 and all the participants were being felicitated during the ceremony.

3. PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Hosted the workshop with the support of ‘IIP’ (Indian Institute of Photography, New Delhi), to empower children and youth by enabling them to visualize their dreams and look at the world with their own perspective, bringing it all out by capturing the right photographs through the camera lens.

4. ART DESIGN WORKSHOP

An exciting session hosted by celebrated Production/Art Director Boishali Sinha to encourage young minds to engage with experimentation and generation of ideas. which will be supported by a sound grounding in art and design principles.

5. CINEMATOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Budding filmmakers called the shots in this hands-on live action cinematography workshop by a leading Cinematographer and tried their hand at lighting control, camera angle, and picture composition, while exploring the fundamental elements of camera operation

6. STORYTELLING WORKSHOP

Hosted by renowned theatre & television personality Lushin Dubey. Fun and interactive learning sessions where children not only developed a love of language and literature, getting skilled in narration and performance, but also got encouraged to immerse into the world of their imagination and weave powerful magical stories through words and oration.

7. SOUND DESIGN WORKSHOP

Award winning sound designer, Amrit Pritam Dutta hosted the workshop with children & youth. A member of The Academy (OSCAR) & MPSE Golden REEL Award, Hollywood Mr Dutta interacted with the kids and taught them the basics of Sound in cinema.

8. AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

More than 12 Awards in different categories were given to the winners.