The fifth edition of Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFFCY) was held from 9-15 December 2019 at the Siri Fort Auditorium complex in New Delhi, India. More than 150 critically acclaimed films from over 50 countries were screened with 30,000 children & youth participating in multiple screenings, workshops, panels and master-classes during the weeklong festival.

This unique celebration of good cinema has been growing with each passing year in terms of entries and presence of global fraternity from the space of cinema and films.

The festival had unique panels of the international jury from different countries & continents for unbiased perspective on the films. Supporting various allegiances, the event represented collaboration with the leading film festival of Europe BUFF-Malmo, Sweden and presenting Sweden Focus in the fest along with German Day in association with Schlingel IFF, Chemnitz, Germany and Czech Day in collaboration with embassy of the Czech Republic , New Delhi and Junior Fest – Czech Republic. More than 25 International Industry leaders and prominent personalities from across the globe attended the festival. The international guest list included John Stevenson – Film maker (Director, Kung Fu Panda) Mohsen Chiniforoushan – Iran, Secretary-General of CIFEJ, Felix Vanginderhuysen- Founder, Secretary-General of European Children’s Film Association, Julia Jarl-Festival Director, BUFF Film Festival, Sweden, and Mitsuo Tahira – Japan, Founder and Director, Tokyo Kinder Film Festival, Michael Harbauer- Germany, Festival director, Schlingel IFF, Josep Arbiol- Spain, Festival director MICE Valencia, KIM Sang-hwa – Korea, Festival director- Busan International Kids & Youth Film Festival, Anu Aun – Estonia (Director Phantom owl forest) & Rasoul Sadrameli – Film maker, Iran among others. SIFFCY Chairman Santanu Mishra (Co-founder & executive trustee, Smile Foundation) and Festival Director Jitendra Mishra opened the weeklong festival on 9th December 2019, 10.30am at Sirifort Audi 1 in the presence of these eminent guests, more than 2000 young spectators along with other dignitaries.

Various capacity building workshops and interactive panels/master classes were hosted to engage, entertain, educate and empower young minds. Thousands of children, largely from the less-privileged communities of Smile Foundation centers took part in these events.

CIFEJ DAYS: SIFFCY is proud to have collaboration with CIFEJ this year to host CIFEJ Days –An interactive filmmaking workshop, during the weeklong film festival. Established in Bruxelles in 1955 under the auspices of UNESCO, CIFEJ is an active non-profit global network of audio-visual media professionals working for children and young people. The main goal of CIFEJ has been to promote production of films and audio-visual media that are culturally diverse, artistic, educational, informative, and at the same time entertaining; especially designed for children and young people.

The Trainer: Renowned film maker from Iran Rasoul Sadrameli (“The Girl in Sneakers”, “I Am Taraneh”, “Fifteen Years Old”,” Aida, I Saw Your Father Last Night”, “The Night” and “Every Night Loneliness”)

Other key activities included:

• Film making workshop with and for children
• Photography workshop by IIP
• Art design workshop
• Cinematography workshop by IIPs
• Storytelling workshop
• Sound design workshop
• Theater Workshop by Arvind Gaur
• Panel on emotional literacy by Parenting 2.0
• Czech Animation workshop by Judita Soukupova
• Special screening of the Czech classic: Journey to the beginning of time by Karel Zeman (1955, Restored version)

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Apart from 15 different international awards in various categories, SIFFCY hosted the prestigious European Children’s Film Association Award (ECFA) , CIFEJ Award & Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI) Award this year. John Stevenson was awarded with the prestigious SIFFCY Award 2019 for his extraordinary contribution towards children cinema. Iranian film ‘Here my Village’ by Abas Aram won 4 different awards, Binti by Frederike Migom won the best film (Children) & Fight Girl by Johan Timmer won the best film (Youth) award in SIFFCY 2019.