KIDS FIRST! Radio

The Controller, a KIDS FIRST! Film Festival selection and winner, is playing on Starz Kids & Family. Set your reminder for Monday, April 20th at 9:45 am and 4:50 pm or Tuesday, June 9th at 4:50pm. www.starz.com/titles/ControllerThe

This fun, madcap action film is about a billionaire, who is stuck in his “perfect” world, until his wife is abducted. He is forced to join with teen video gamers and has only eight hours to win, or else! Starring: Bob Rue, Tank Jones, Lolita Sahwany , John Dobradenka, Vince Reign, Jeff Niemoeller, Jimmy Flowers, Carin Sprague. Directed by Frank Michels.

Santa Fe Film Reps represented The Controller in their contract agreements with Starz and Moving Pictures Film & Television LLC.

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film Will Award Two $5,000 Scholarships at the 10th Annual KIDS FIRST! Best Awards Day, October 17th
The KIDS FIRST! Film Festival in conjunction with the Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville, TN will offer two scholarships to student filmmakers this year. Five thousand dollar ($5,000) scholarships will be offered in two student filmmaker categories: High School and College Student. Winners will also receive a $250 travel allowance to attend the 10th Annual KIDS FIRST! Best Awards Day, October 17th at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
High School and College student films accepted to the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival for the 4th quarter of 2008 and 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2009 are eligible for consideration for the scholarship awards, subject to selection by the judges and submission of a successful application to Watkins. Judges will consider live action, animated, narrative and documentary films and the films may be features or shorts. The winners will have up to 2 years to accept their scholarship. Judges will be from both KIDS FIRST! and the Watkins College of Art, Design & Film.
As part of Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, the Watkins BFA Film program is distinguished by a film curriculum that explores the artistic, technical, and business aspects of independent filmmaking. Students will specialize in one of the five concentrated areas of filmmaking, while developing competency in the entire filmmaking process. With a focus on dramatic narrative film, Watkins Film School helps students find their personal voice and style and helps them incorporate these factors into their narrative work. The Watkins College of Art, Design & Film is located in Nashville, TN.
KIDS FIRST! is a program of the   17-year-old, national, nonprofit organization,  Coalition for Quality Children’s Media  whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s media. The Coalition is a voluntary collaboration comprising more than 10,000 media professionals, lobbyists, policymakers, child advocates, educators, parents and families nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.kidsfirst.org.

Remember Drive in Movies? Well they may be a thing of the past, but over the last few years, KIDS FIRST! has partnered with difference venues to host outdoor screenings from Los Angeles to Florida. One of the most fun programs was the Summer Series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Every Friday night, families gathered under the stars to enjoy outdoor screening of current films. The kids even had their own screen, complete with bean bag chairs! 

This spring, KIDS FIRST! is partnering with Hollywood Outdoor Movies (www.hollywoodoutdoormovies.com) to bring fun family entertainment to the Southern California area. Hollywood provides all the equipment, including the fantastic blow up screens, projectors and technical support AND a popcorn machine. KIDS FIRST! provides the films. Why not sponsor a fundraiser for your school or church? How much fun would that be? 

If you aren’t in the Southern California area, that’s OK, we can connect you to the local provider. Contact KIDS FIRST! at 505-989-8076 for more info.

For the 5th straight year, KIDS FIRST! is providing great programming for the USA KidFilm festival in Dallas. This year’s top film is one of the KIDS FIRST! favorites for the year, Finn on the Fly. This wacky film from Canada is about a boy, his dog (Finn) and a nutty neighbor whose experiments cause Finn to turn into a boy. . . Finn on the Fly screened at the Santa Fe Film Festival and will also be screened this spring at a number of KIDS FIRST! festivals, including Tiburon Film Festival, Beloit Film Festival, and Sedona International Film Festival. Check out where this fun film is screening at www.kidsfirst.org/fest.

As they have in the past, Verizon Business is teaming with the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) to offer toll-free calling to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline.  From 4a MST December 24  through 3a MST December 25, kids in the US and Canada can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to check on Santa’s progress (if you happen to live in the local Colorado Springs calling area, then dial 719-556-5211).  Additionally, kids/parents can track Santa’s location in real time on maps and via SantaCam video at www.noradsanta.org, where the information is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish and, for the first time, in Chinese.

Santa Claus made an appearance at the screening of Finn on the Fly and gave away Eloise: Little Miss Christmas, Thomas and Friends: Ultimate Christmas and The Happy Elf to all the kids attending. They also received Wubbzy stickers and toys at the Santa Fe Film Festival, Saturday, December 6^th.
The 5th Annual IFFS has held in Las Vegas this week. Both Ranny Levy and Ann Church from KIDS FIRST! attended the summit that started Sunday, December 7th. Ranny participated on a panel discussion regarding year around programming. This is an important summit for film festivals to attend as it is truly the only networking location for festival people. I was able to finally meet many of the festival directors that we have worked with over a number of years, including Denver, Ashland, Oxford, Atlanta and made some incredible contacts interested in children’s programming.
Many of the events addressed and were moderated by the large festivals, Sundance, Tribeca and Telluride, but the small breakout sessions were the gems of the summit. Additionally, afternoon gatherings allowed for easy interaction between the attendees and sponsors, B-Side, Without a Box and IMDb. The summit ran a full 2 ½ days and one way to determine the success is that on the final afternoon, the room was still full and the conversations still interesting.
As with many young festivals, there is still much that can be added to help the small to mid size festivals.  This year’s hot topic seemed to be about film distribution and the economy, with some sessions designed to help with budgeting and board retention. I suggest that if you are a festival director or programming, this should be on your radar for next year. www.filmfestivalsummit.com

Favorites for Halloween are the R.L. Stine Goosebumps stories, One Day at Horrorland, Monster Blood and A Night in Terror Tower. As Jon Bowman, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Film Festival says, “If you are going to scare kids, this is the time of year!” The Goosebumps series has been in the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival for several years and will play this coming weekend at the Key West Film Society, the Film Center at Cinema Cafe, the Denver Film Society and the Austin Public Library. For the younger set, KIDS FIRST! has Fat Alberts Halloween Special. Be safe and have fun!

Get Involved in the Voting Process! Play “Road to the Capital”

It is five days before the national election and all of the media are at national election headquarters for the National Student/Parent Mock Election, watching as the results come in from all 50 states and 14 countries/territories around the world where Americans reside. The voices of millions of young Americans are about to be heard.
The students have studied the candidates and their positions, held issue forums and debates, mock press conferences, cable call-in programs, and get-out-the-vote campaigns. They have been preparing for weeks and months for this event. At many of the state election headquarters, governors, senators, congress members and candidates are joining the young voters as they cast their ballots. Tonight is their night.
Which party will win control of the Senate? The House? Will the incumbent or the newcomer be on their way to Washington, D.C.? Who will be the next governor? What issues matter most to other students in their state? In the nation?
   
 Millions of students, and sometimes their parents, are voting in classrooms, schools, community centers, state capitals, even hospital rooms, all across the nation today and reporting their vote totals to their state election headquarters. Each state is tallying its results and sending them in to national election headquarters. The media are flashing the results across the country.
Millions of students, and sometimes their parents, are voting in classrooms, schools, community centers, state capitals, even hospital rooms, all across the nation today and reporting their vote totals to their state election headquarters. Each state is tallying its results and sending them in to national election headquarters. The media are flashing the results across the country.
Mock Election Day is the culmination of months of learning the power of participation in our democracy.
www.nationalmockelection.org

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII KIDS FIRST! FILM FESTIVAL PARTNERS WITH MAUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE-VITEC “COLLEGE FOR KIDS” PROGRAM TO PRESENT A FREE EVENING OF FAMILY FILM AND FUN UNDER THE STARS ON MAUI
College for Kids, offered through the Maui Community College-VITEC program, joins with the University of HawaiŒi at Manoa KIDS FIRST! Film Festival to present an evening of free family fun under the stars on Maui. The festivities include, a screening of the feature film, Alice Upside Down, and a new Wubbzy episode from Starz. In addition, there will be door prizes and information on future programs. The event has been scheduled for August 22nd and begins at 6:30 pm on the Great Lawn located at the center of the Maui Community College campus. Plenty of parking is available. Bring lawn chairs, mats and a picnic dinner. Snacks will be available for purchase from the Valley Isle Girlz 4-H club. Alice Upside Down is appropriate for children ages 8 and above.
Alice Upside Down was developed from the award-winning popular series of books by Newbery Medalist, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Alice McKinley (played with great charm by Alyson Stoner) is an endearing, 11-year-old heroine growing up without a mother. Through a series of incidents both hilarious and poignant, Alice grows from tweenship into teenship in an all male household, with her father, Ben (Luke Perry) and 17-year-old brother, Lester (Lucas Grabeel). Her mother died six years ago and her father has moved the family to a new town for a new beginning. But as the new girl in school, Alice¹s life is full of anxiety, awkward moments and overwhelming challenges. With the support of her father, a special teacher (Penny Marshall) and her new friends, Alice charges forward through the chaos and embarrassment with imagination, humor and heart.
College for Kids, offered through the Maui Community College-VITEC program, introduces children to the college environment by providing an enriching, project-oriented, interdisciplinary curriculum and a positive learning experience that is safe, creative and interactive. The University of HawaiŒi
KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is presented by UH-Manoa Outreach College, and is supported in part by the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust and Starwood Hotels & Resorts HawaiŒi.
For more information, call (808) 984-3231 on Maui.
http://maui.hawaii.edu/

Santa Fe, NM. (May 5, 2008). KIDS FIRST! proudly announces the opening of the polls for the 2008 KIDS FIRST! Top 100 Kid Films on May 5, 2008. The public is invited to vote for their favorite children’s films of all time from the online list of more than 175 feature films and to write in their favorites.

With open voting, everyone gets a voice in the creating of this list! To vote, go on line to www.kidsfirst.org and click on the VOTE button. Enter your top five children’s film titles with comments about why you selected them, then select your favorite 100 from the list of 175 titles that include The Lion King, Wizard of Oz, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Shrek. The 2008 KIDS FIRST! Top 100 Kid Films will be announced later this summer.

The KIDS FIRST! Top 100 Kid Films will encompass films suitable for kids between the ages of 2 and 18 that have universal appeal, exhibit outstanding attributes in terms of their production values and portray values and have qualities that make them as applicable today as the day they were first released.  This list is unique because it takes into consideration not just what films adults think kids should watch but also what kids like to and will watch. Because media has the power to influence children, negatively or positively, the films on this list portray the values and ethics that we, as a culture wish to instill in our children. This list will provide as much information as possible about age appropriateness of each film, a brief synopsis, the key artists involved and any special audience issues it may address.

KIDS FIRST! is uniquely positioned to create this list because of its 17-year history evaluating and promoting quality children’s films. Any film that KIDS FIRST! endorses must meet or exceed the baseline criteria of: no gratuitous violence or abuse; no inappropriate sexual behavior; no bias in terms of race, gender, culture or religion; no condescension toward children; no replicable unsafe behavior. Additionally, any film on this list has been compared with others and found to be exceptional among its peers.

KIDS FIRST! employs a unique community jury system that involves more than 3000 children and professional adults with backgrounds in education, child development and other child-service professions. Using a set of standardized criteria, created by leading children’s media experts, KIDS FIRST! evaluations are credible and consistent evaluations. More than 10,000 films, DVDs, TV shows, and other media have been evaluated by KIDS FIRST! since 1991.
KIDS FIRST! is a program of the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media,  a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1991 whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s media. The Coalition is a voluntary collaboration comprising more than 10,000 media professionals, lobbyists, policymakers, child advocates, educators, parents and families nationwide. For more information, visit www.kidsfirst.org
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ann Church
Senior Vice President of Marketing
KIDS FIRST! / Coalition for Quality Children’s Media
505-989-8076
[email protected]