It has been the week of openings for Planning With Kids! Tuesday evening we attended the opening of Explore-a-saurus @ Scienceworks and today we headed along to ACMI at Fed Square for the opening of Little Big Shots International Film Festival for Kids.
What is Little Big Shots?
An inspiring, meaningful and fun-filled festival, Little Big Shots features the best in local and international children’s shorts, animations, documentaries and, amazingly, child-produced films.
The films screening in Little Big Shots inspire discussion of world cultures, different languages, cultural diversity, emotional intelligence and human values. Better still, we guarantee they will make kids laugh, whoop, think and create.
This year the festival runs from June 9 to 13, at ACMI Cinemas (Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square) and ArtPlay (Birrarung Marr). Over the long week end Little Big Shots will screen 80 films from 20 countries. There are two very special activities for kids that I recommend you check out:
- Splash – Stop-motion animation workshop for kids aged 5 and up. This free and no bookings are required, just drop in to Artplay between 12.30pm – 3.30pm on 11. 12 and 13th June.
- Kaleidoscope – Visit the Little Big Shots Festival Club on Sunday June 12, between 1pm and 4pm, to help make a short documentary about multiculturalism in Melbourne. Bring along something (or someone!) that represents your family background to feature on-screen. Take a turn both in front of and behind the camera. Free! No bookings required. Also for kids 5 and up.
The Festival Winners
Little Big Shots ran a competition at last years festival to select the children to make up the Children’s Jury, who gave out the top honours for films entered in this years Little Big Shots. There are two categories and the top three for each were:
Best kids films made by kids:
How not to get a girl is very funny, but definitely aimed at the older group in the audience, teenagers will completely relate to it. My kids fave from this category was A Duck Out Of Water. It was a clay animation from a grade 5 and 6 class from Yarraville West Primary School. The children who came on stage to accept the prize on behalf of their class said it took them about 4 months to make – what patient kids!
Best kids films made by grown ups:
We only saw Lola the Magnificent and Franswa Sharl, both of which were incredibly entertaining films for both kids and adults. But Franswa Sharl is something special. Aimed again at the older kids in the audience, but my seven year old daughter said it was her favourite out of all them. Set in the 80’s in a Fijian resort (actually Port Stephens) this film does indeed inspire discussions on emotional intelligence and human values.
The Festival Program
You can find the Little Big Shots program here and also book tickets online. Prices are:
- Single tickets: $7
- Family pass (for 4 people): $24*
- Multi-session pass (for 4 sessions): $24*
*Valid for screenings at ACMI Cinemas only
ACMI also has created a comprehensive Little Big Shots Teacher Kit which can be downloaded, part of which can be seen in the image above. This is a great resource for parents too.
Little Big Shots Goes National
LIttle Big Shtos has a national tour in 2011 which includes screenings at:
- Warrnambool’s Fun4Kids Festival (July 3-10). Bookings (03) 5562 4044
- Museum of the Riverina – Wagga Wagga (July 7-9). Bookings (02) 6926 9655
- Adelaide Festival Centre (July 21-23). Bookings 131 246
- Sydney Opera House (July 28-31). Bookings (02) 9250 7770
- Star Court Theatre – Lismore (August 12-13). Bookings 1300 066 772
Their website states that there will be more locations to come and if you have are a venue owner somewhere in Australia they encourage you to contact them if you are interested in having Little Big Shots screen at your venue.