Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) The Little Art announces the 12th edition of Lahore International Children’s Film Festival (LICFF), which will be presenting 158 films from 24 countries in 16 languages. The films are made by professional filmmakers, as well as young people suitable for children, youth and families.
The festival will showcase selected best films for children in local and international feature and short live action category, animation, documentaries and films made by children. The online festival will be launched at StarzPlay by Cinepax from 21st August 2020 and will be available till 21 November 2020.
LICFF (Lahore International Children’s Film Festival) is an annual event to showcase the best of local and international films made by, for and about children and young people. The festival started in 2008 and has completed its 11 seasons successfully with over 1188 films from nearly 118 countries screened to over 501,550 children. The festival has been organized in cities like Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gilgit Baltistan, Jamshoro & Tando Jam in Interior Sindh and Bhakkar in Rural Punjab. This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and all the uncertainties it presents, the festival is partnering up with leading streaming service STARZPLAY by Cinepax in order to help the participant filmmakers reach a wider audience.
LICFF Director Shoaib Iqbal said; “Covid-19 has formed unprecedented challenges for us all, especially for the arts and culture sector, but we believe that we can find ways through collaborations. Since we will not be able to hold the physical Festival events in 6 cities across Pakistan as planned this year, we worked hard to reach more children across Pakistan through our digital offering. We are bringing the world home for children, youth and families, and are thankful to all the partners for the support.”
Arif Baig Mohamed, Chairman of Cinepax said; “This year has been challenging because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but at the same time has resulted in opportunities on the digital frontier. Being the most widely accessible streaming service in Pakistan, we experienced considerable growth in streaming numbers and viewership counts. This year we are proud to host Lahore International Children’s Film Festival online.”
This year, the festival has three juries in place. A Young Jury with National and International children (Under 18 years old), a senior jury of filmmakers, and an artists jury. In the young jury, the children will see films and vote for the winners. The Festival’s senior jury includes Asghar Nadeem Syed (Play Writer), Ali Ijaz (Documentary Filmmaker), Dr. Wajiha Raza Rizvi (Prof/Documentary Filmmaker) and Tazeen bari (Documentary Filmmaker).
The jury of artists includes Asad J Malik (Augmented Reality Artist, Director), Hamza Bangash (Director, Screenwriter, Producer), Ali Gul Pir (Filmmaker, Comedian, Writer, Actor), Shireen Gheba Najib (Author, Illustrator), Natasha Zubair (Photographer, Graphic Designer), Adeel Chishti (Photographer), Sarah Peracha (Entrepreneur, Influencer), Gulbeen Gulriaz (Artist, Creator, Illustrator), Anam Saeed (Storyteller, Photographer) & Kamran Ali aka Kamran on Bike (Explorer, Storyteller, Photographer).
This year LICFF has collaborated with national organizations like Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA Islamabad), Lok Virsa (Islamabad), Wall City Lahore Authority (WCLA Lahore), Alhamra Art Council (Lahore), Faiz Ghar (Lahore), Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands (ISLAMABAD), Teacher’s Resource Center (TRC Karachi), Olomopolo Media (Lahore), Karakorum Area Development Organization (KADO Gilgit), College of Youth Activism and Development (CYAAD Quetta), Group Development (GD Islamabad), Documentary Association of Pakistan (DAP Karachi), Galaxy Lollywood (Lahore), ARTS Foundation (Mirpurkhas), IAM KARACHI (Karachi), Institute for Arts and Culture (IAC Lahore), Kinnaird College for Learning and Cultural Development (KCLCD Lahore) and Maati TV.
LICFF aims to continue to inspire children through film and brings the community together to watch, learn and discuss cinema. We have an immense love for the craft of filmmaking, storytelling, children and youth and inspiring them to become independent creative thinkers, dreamers and doers. We are grateful to the organizations for their support this year.
