The 3rd edition of ATHICFF will keep company to children and adolescents in Greece and Cyprus from November 14-22, offering families and schools high-quality films for free and online on the festival’s platform: https://watch.athicff.com/.
The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It is co-organised with the Regional Governor of Attica, held in cooperation with the Urban Non-Profit Company Kallisti and under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens. It presents its largest programme to date, offering Greek audiences access to international short and feature films addressed to children from 2 years to adolescence, as well as to the parents.
“Misguided”, dir. Sang Yun Kim, (2019, US, 3’)
Part of the Festival (31 short films) is accessible to people with difficulty in understanding, autism and mental disability. Through the easy2read language which “translates“ the texts making them easier to understand, the entire site of the Festival becomes accessible to the above groups in collaboration with the Nonprofit Organization TheHappyArt.
Also, as an act of solidarity with their audiences and within the national film industry, ATHICFF, Thessaloniki IFF, Olympia IFF and CineDoc Kids will collaborate and all present the popular adaptation ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’, which is screening on November 14th within ATHICFF’s platform and thereby opens the festival online.
The Festival gives deeper insight into the way children live around the world and what preoccupies them. For that reason, the program includes themes about:
The environment and how to take action. The feature doc ‘Microplastic Madness’ inspires and sets an example for kids and adults alike; this theme is widely explored in a variety of shorts throughout the program, addressing all ages.
“Learning To Skateboard in A Warzone (WhenYou’reaGirl)”, dir. Carol Dissinger (2019, UK /US, 40’)
The power of imagination and sports that allows children and teenagers to break stereotypes.
For example, the Oscar-winning documentary short ‘Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)‘ spearheads the theme of sport and how putting on skates, picking up a ball or dancing can change the whole perspective of dealing with hardship.
The historical perspective that reflects today’s societies. As with ‘Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale’, the animated feature on the year 1989 under Soviet regime and ‘The Crossing’, the award-winning Norwegian World War 2 adventure.
“Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale”, dir. Ralf Kukula & Mathias Brune (2019, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, Czech Republic, 87’)
The first experience with Horror films addressed to teenage viewers who will get full value this year with a thrilling new section and will enjoy films such as ‘The Devil’s Harmony’ in which the ‘’geeks’’ take revenge on those who bully them in full Stanley Kubrick and Brian de Palma style.
“The Devil’s Harmony”, dir. Dylan Holms Williams (2019, UK, 14’)
As part of its popular “Baby&Me“ section addressed to young parents, the Festival presents the feature-length documentary ‘Dive: Rituals in Water’. It’s a heart-warming story that follows an experienced baby swimming teacher as he teaches infants to swim in a heated pool in Reykjavik.
A dedicated school programme with educational material and workshops runs throughout the festival period online, and continues during the academic year as a travelling and hopefully physical festival to remote areas of Greece. In that context, the Festival organises webinars for primary school and high school teachers and discussions with a child psychologist about issues that arise from films of the programme.
Watch the Festival trailer here:
F.K.
