“I've had situations where parents are calling me, asking what's happened to their children. They can't believe that the jury is still arguing hours after the last screening, when it's already growing dark.”
Renate Zylla, director of the Children's Filmfest (which celebrates its 20th birthday with an official reception at the Palais Am Festungsgraben today) was describing the sometimes heated debates between the 11 young cineastes she chooses every year to help select a winner of The Glass Bear.
Aged between 10 and 14, and chosen from more than 600 applicants, these jury members are every bit as opinionated as their counterparts on the official competition jury. “Often, the younger, smaller children prefer stories that make them laugh,” Zylla observes, “while the older ones may say these are not serious enough to merit awards.” But she insists that everybody is given their say. With 14 features to watch, meetings and receptions to attend, the 1997 jurors face a punishing schedule. (And they mustn't neglect their school work either.)
Zylla took over the Children's Filmfest 12 years ago. Since then, the event has grown and grown. It now has two juries, a competition for features and shorts and, to mark the 20th birthday, a Retrospective featuring past winners and old favourites (Billie August's 1984 effort, Buster's World among them).
The only children's film festival attached to an A-category festival, it is now an international event in its own right, screening films everywhere from China to Israel. And you don't have to be young to enjoy it. As Zylla puts it, “the films are for everybody, not just children”.
Geoffrey Macnab
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