KIDS FIRST! Film Festival;World's Largest for Children

The World's Largest Film Festival for Kids!

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Announcing KIDS FIRST! Best 2011 Winners

Announcing KIDS FIRST! Best 2011 Nominees

Celebrities and paparazzi have Cannes,
but kids and families have the . . .KIDS FIRST! Film Festival

nmhm
2009 Awards, New Mexico History Museum

Academy
2008 Awards, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Hollywood, Ca

Mallory Lewis, Host of KIDS FIRST! Best Awards Studio Luncheon 2009

Emily

Emily Osment, star of Soccer Mom and Girl Scout Volunteer - 2008 Awards

FoodBoyTalent

Marc Mangum (writer/producer, Kunal Sharma, Jeff Braine (kneelling) Brittany Curran, Dane Cannon (director) from Food Boy with their award.

Cassie

Cassie Scerbo, co-star of Soccer Mom

Kay

Kay Panabaker, star of Moondance Alexander and co-star of Prince and the Pauper

GirlScoutsEmily

Girl Scouts and Emily Osment from Soccer Mom

Brittany

Brittany Curran and girls from audience

KIDS FIRST! Film Festival

Now in its thirteenth year, the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is a showcase for children's films, TV shows and DVDs from major studios and independent filmmakers. The festival partners with more than 100 venues worldwide who host more than 5,000 screenings of KIDS FIRST! films year-round.

Youth are given a true voice - as curators, as audience members, as film critics, as volunteer staff and as filmmakers showing their work. Almost one-third of the films accepted every year are from student filmmakers.

All films screened during the year are considered for the KIDS FIRST! Best Awards, given once a year. Our Awards in the spring. For a list of 2011 nominees please go here.

Film Screenings in Communities Worldwide

The KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is hosted locally by established film festivals such as the Newport Beach Film Festival and the USA KidFilm Festival; art and children's museums such as the Children's Museum of Houston; nonprofit film centers such as the Avalon Theater in Washington DC and the Denver Film Society. Libraries, schools and other local organizations participate with film screenings daily, weekly, or monthly. Each local venue reaches thousands of children and parents at their screenings.

To learn how you can bring the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival, or even a single film from the festival to your community, contact our office by email or phone 505-989-8076.

Programming

KIDS FIRST! Film Festival accepts more than 300 titles every year, changing the programming every quarter. For a list of titles included in the current festivals, and the venues where they are playing, visit our online programming site.

One of the strengths of our programming is that we carefully identify the age appropriateness of every film shown and group them by five age categories: 2-5, 5-8, 8-12, and 12-18

KIDS FIRST! Criteria

Films that are accepted for our festival have been evaluated by juries of adults and kids and, at the bare minimum, must meet the KIDS FIRST! baseline acceptance criteria of: no gratuitous violence; no racial or cultural bias; no inappropriate sexual behavior; no replicable unsafe behavior; no condescension towards children.

KIDS FIRST! Best Awards

Once a year, we honor the best films shown during the previous year at the annual KIDS FIRST! Best Awards Day. Awards are given in more than 25 different categories.. Judges for the awards are senior film programmers and senior KIDS FIRST! jurors.

For more info about the KIDS FIRST! Best Awards, go here.

The KIDS FIRST! Film Festival

is a project of the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, a national, 20-year-old, nonprofit (501-c-3) organization that is a voluntary collaboration between the media industry, educators and child advocacy organizations. The mission of the Coalition is: 1) To teach children to become critical media users and; 2) To increase the visibility and availability of quality children's media.

Cassie