Children and Youth 2024

Dom, an eleven-year-old outsider from a small town, is inspired by the victory of the Czech hockey players at the Olympic Games in Nagano. He aspires to become a goalie like his idol Dominik Hašek. All for recognition and a kiss from the best girl in his school class. No dream is too big.

Selected Awards:

• Best Film, KINEKO International Children’s Film Festival, Japan, 2023.
• Best Feature Film, Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, Greece, 2023.
• Best Film – Children’s Jury & Best Film – Main Jury, Children’s Film & TV Festival of Ota Hofman, Czech Republic, 2023.
• Teen Screen Award, Filem’on International Children’s Film Festival Brussels, Belgium, 2022.

On a cold winter’s day in 1940, Jules and his family move to live with his uncle, mayor of a settlers’ village in northern Quebec. He is banned from school because of his rare skin disease. From that moment on, his greatest wish is to be cured. When his dog Spark runs away into the wild forest, Jules has no choice but to look for him. On his way, he meets Asha, a mysterious young indigenous girl. Together, they venture to the other side of the forest, where nature reveals itself full of life and secrets.

Awards:

• Best Environmental Film – CONAI Award, Giffoni Film Festival, Italy, 2023.
• Best Film, Montreal International Children’s Film Festival, Canada, 2023.
• Best Film – CIFEJ, KINEKO International Children’s Film Festival, Japan, 2023.

• Fiction Feature Prize, Montclair Film Festival, USA, 2023.

Fourteen-year-old Zeina and her family are the last to have stayed in their besieged hometown of Damascus in Syria. A missile rips a giant hole in their home, exposing them to the outside world. When a rope is mysteriously lowered into the hole, Zeina gets her first taste of freedom, and an unimaginable world of possibility opens up for her. As the violence outside escalates, the family is pressured to evacuate, but her father, Mutaz, is adamant that they stay, refusing to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. Faced with a life-or-death dilemma, Zeina and Hala, her mother, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.

Awards:

• Best Film – Prix du Jury Jeune, Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck, France, 2023.
• Best Feature Film, Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival, UAE, 2023.
• Best Film, Amnesty International Human Rights Awards, Rome MedFilm Festival, 2023.
• Audience Award & Lanterna Magica Award, Venice Film Festival, Italy, 2022.

A first-grade primary school teacher in a poor suburb of Tehran assigns a letter to each student and asks them to bring items starting with an assigned letter, related to their fathers’ jobs. Mehdi’s father is a fruit seller and so Mehdi must bring 30 apples (“Seeb” in Farsi) to class on the “S” Day. However, an unfortunate event immerses the family in a crisis. Saeed, Mehdi’s older brother, must find a way to overcome this challenge and help Mehdi for “the apple day”.

After David Kim’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. 

Awards:

• Best of Next! & Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, Sundance Film Festival, USA, 2018.