Teens rescue and defend infant creatures that the adults around them accused of being vicious and predatory. Another adolescent injury and other hurdles fight for basketball stardom. Little Mexican children contract polio, but find comfort in the world of art. And then, an 11-year-old Kurdish immigrant arrives in Berlin and eventually feels like he's back at home again, relying on his talent in football.
These young people are the protagonists of the work being exhibited at the 2025 New York International Children's Film Festival, all fierce, fearless, and perhaps the most memorable women. This year's festival kicks off a three-week run in Manhattan on Friday, with 13 features and 79 short films, many of which proudly celebrate girls and women.
Slate doesn't ignore the film about boys, but among them the story of the time travel brothers and the father-son team at the boat building, but the choices enhance the girl's powers more than any of the festival choices in recent memory.
“Many of these stories of strong girls and women are real stories,” said Maria Christina Villazenor, programming director at the festival, in an interview. She mentioned two films with the first festival show this weekend (all features have two screening dates). Erikatanamachi's live-action documentary “Home Court” follows Cambodian-American basketball player Ashley Chia, until Princeton's freshman year, and “Frida” Kahlo, animated as the animation “Hola, the Artist of Frida” Kahlo.
“Obviously, Frida Kahlo's story is a story that many people feel they're used to, but it's really funny to tell from the perspective of a child's self,” Villaségnore said.
Offering rare fares that younger viewers may be missing – short films, quirky independent films, and foreign films with subtitles – is now in its 29th year and is a feature of the festival, one of the biggest and widest of its kind. (It also operates classroom programs and national tour film slates.) And unlike many children's film fairs, the New York Festival offers program tickets starting at $17 (the full festival pass is $135), even including multiple screenings of teenagers and college students who can see some of the Pier's work at the showcase on March 15th.
Showing at four Manhattan theatres, the festival is also one of the few Oscar-qualified children. This means that short films that receive prizes from adult ju umpires will be eligible for the Academy Awards. (The two shorts from last year's festival, Magic Candy and Yuck!”, compete for the best animated shorts at Sunday night's Oscar ceremony.)
“We feel that many of this year's features are suitable for kids, but they're not necessarily made for kids,” Nina Gouranic, executive director of the festival, said in an interview. Or, she added, “They are there for everyone in a vaster way than children's films traditionally exist.”
The festival frequently released works by acclaimed directors whose careers include Oscar nominations and victory. This year, French director Michel Gondry (“The Eternal Sun of a Spotless Heart”) will be portrayed at the festival with the North American premiere of “Maya, Give Me Title,” a feature celebrating her relationship with her daughter.
The 9-year-old Maya Gondry easily fits the festival's high-spiritual female subject mold. Maya's father frequently filmed, so the two came up with a communication game that was born out of humorous smartphone messages. Gondry asked Maya for the title and then using cut paper and stop motion animations, he created a short film where she was the heroine.
“Maya, Give Me a Title” consists of around 12 of the resulting adventures. “Ketchup Bottles and the Sea Mayan,” “Maya and the Thief Cat” – a live-action sequence of uncontrollable Maya herself.
“The more complicated the title, the more complicated the story, and she could see her playing with it,” Gondrie said in a recent video interview from Berlin. He added that he enjoyed the rough look of stop motion, “If the execution wasn't perfect, my concept would come across more.”
Villaseñor said embraces of handmade aesthetics for computer-generated ones have appeared in other festival entries. It appears in short films like Andre Karilijo's “The Girl With Occupy Eyes” (a wild hand-drawn animation that glues children to the phone surrounded by their surroundings) and festival centerpieces and additional features such as Isaiah Saxon's “The Legend of Ochi.”
The film's teenage heroine, Yuri (Helena Zengel), rejects her father (Willem Dafoe) and saves Baby Ochi, a fictional creature similar to the cross between Marmoset and Koala. In collaboration with John Nolan Studios, Saxon chose to use animatronics and puppet shows almost exclusively to portray the punchline he assumed to live on an island in the Black Sea.
“Our brains can easily latch into the fantasies of reality when we see a doll,” Saxon said in a video interview in California. This is especially true for portrayals of very young animals, he added. “They're just thinking about how to control their bodies,” he said. “And the same thing happens with the doll. You know, there are tiny tiny wiggles in hand.”
The director of the festival never decides on a theme, but the trends in the film simply surface – they are actively seeking titles that “celebrate cultural diversity, rather than view it as a threat,” Villaseñor said. This year's products representing 35 countries include the “winner” of Soleen Youssef, who discovered the sport as a universal language for Syrian Kurdish immigrant Mona (Deleila Agilman), to bond with new German classmates. On “Home Court,” Cheer initially developed basketball skills through the Japanese American League, which was founded in response to the US exclusion of Asian players shortly after World War II.
In the US, “it's a wonder that we cultivate all of these cultures and all of these identities together in one space,” film director Tanamachi said in a video conversation from California. “And I think this film really celebrates it.” (Tanamachi is one of 38 filmmakers visiting the festival for Q&A sessions.)
The festival's diversity embraces extend to portrayals of young people with disabilities, like Leonard Mink's short film, Tremolo. A deaf boy who finds a common language with his musician's father, and Yakuwa's animation feature “Totto-chan: Girl in the Window” spectrum.
“The work we do has been and continues to be important to our kids for the 29 years we've been doing,” Guralnick said. She added, “We have this opportunity to truly expand our children's sense of themselves and the world.”
And what is the movie?
New York International Children's Film Festival
February 28th to March 16th. 212-349-0330; nyicff.org.
