“Good cinema isn’t just good to watch, but also necessary to be watched.”
Today, the power to change the world lies with the young for the future is theirs. But this power can only be realized when it manifests and cultivates itself in a meaningful way. Every single positive action can offset a chain reaction of acts of goodness and kindness and that’s where Smile International Film Festival For Children and Youth (SIFFCY) comes into picture. Our effort is to inspire school children to become these very points of positive actions in the society, and offset multiple chain reactions.
Children today are riddled with different challenges every single day. Ranging from bullying, to depression, to body image issues and even low self-esteem concerns, with a different era where digital influences are growing day by day, a different set of struggles have cropped up. These issues have become alarming, and need to be addressed in a fashion that these students would be able to understand, and learn from. Innovative ways needs to be developed to mould and transform the young minds.
In order to then productively address the problems Gen Z face, we worked on a unique initiative using the medium of the visual arts. The result of this brainstorming was the ideation of a film festival meant for children and youth. Now moving towards the tenth edition, Smile International Film Festival For Children and Youth (SIFFCY) brings together good and meaningful world cinema. SIFFCY not only allows us to sensitise the young minds, but also keeps the medium of sensitisation fun, creative, and unique. As we celebrate SIFFCY for the tenth consecutive year, we anticipate thousands of students from schools across India joining us in our endeavour, ready to be inspired, and to inspire.
The power of cinema today is such that it can leave an everlasting impact on a mind, and given that students tend to get highly influenced by what they see, it becomes important to keep this visual content relevant and responsible. Even while there is a lot of good cinema out there, it often becomes tedious to have access to that content, which is why at SIFFCY, we are screening 100+ movies from around the globe, at no cost to the children, to motivate them-so that they have the ingredients to become our future leaders and more importantly, responsible citizens of our nation.
The 10th edition of SIFFCY (Smile International Film Festival for Children and Youth) is a week long festival, to be held at Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi from 09-15th April, 2024. The festival will attract school going children, budding filmmakers, industry professionals, and audience members from around the world. More than 100 movies from around the world will be screened here, including feature films, short films, and documentaries. Some of the key highlights would be events such as Film Making Workshop, Cinematography Workshop, Storytelling Workshop, Photography Workshop, and much more. For more details, please visit us on siffcy.org
