FesticineKids Cartagena (27)

Festival start: 24 September 2025      Festival end: 28 September 2025

FesticineKids 27 is an international children's and youth film festival in Cartagena de Indias, it is a film competition that orients its efforts towards strengthening the production and distribution of Colombian, Latin American and world cinema for children and young people.

In 2025, FesticineKids reaches its 27th, edition with the same spirit of highlighting and celebrating cinema for girls, boys and young people. The phrase has been chosen as the slogan: OUR KIDS VALUES. From this concept it is intended to invite children and young people to be aware of the responsibility they have to be agents of change in their environments. Children and young people are the future that should encourage the care of our planet earth, the human beings that surround them, animals and plants, as well as the places they visit. The tendency to Afro movies and ones oriented to indigenous people.

In the construction of the profile of the FesticineKids 27, the screen is problematized as a point of confluence of girls, boys and adolescents. By postulating cinema as that scenario in which feelings, emotions and beliefs are expressed, it is intended that girls, boys and adolescents, understanding what the cinema evokes them, what they extract from it and its meanings, wonder about the place that cinema has in their lives, in their environment, in parallel to the place they want and dream of.

It is also an opportunity for adults, parents, teachers, cultural and cinematographic authorities, to think about the need to strengthen their capacities to be trainers in tension and interaction with the audiovisual media, especially the cinema.

Juries: The FesticineKids 27 will have two groups of juries: one composed of three (3) film professionals and another consisting of twenty (20) children and adolescents belonging to educational institutions of Cartagena and Bolivar, who will choose the winning productions of each category on behalf of the public.

Prizes: Both groups of juries will deliver, in an independent way, the following prizes:

Adult jury

-Office official competition: K Kids for the best length and Special Mention.

-Official Short Film Competition: K for Kids for Best Short Film and Special Mention.

-Colombia in shorts: Kids K for best short and Special Mention.

-U-Lab: Kids K to better short.

Jury Kids:

-Office official competition: K Kids for the best length and Special Mention.

-Official Short Film Competition: K for Kids for Best Short Film and Special Mention.

-Colombia in shorts: Kids K for best short and Special Mention.

-Experimental Kids: Kids K for best short.

-U-Lab: K for Kids for Best Short and Special Mention

The FesticineKids Foundation invites directors and filmmakers to register their film productions for FesticineKids 27, which will include the following sections:

a. Official competition of feature films: It includes film productions of any genre, aimed at children and young audiences, preferably narrating stories close to the daily experiences of children and adolescents, whose plots take into account their concerns, interests and needs around friendship, love, sexuality, education, family, values and human rights, and culture. In this section, Colombian and foreign productions of great visual and narrative quality will compete.

b. Official Short Film Competition: This is a window on the world's short film production in the field of children's and young people's cinema. It will group foreign works of any genre with a plot no longer than 10 minutes and whose stories are aimed at children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 17.

c. Colombia in Shorts: The purpose of Colombia in Shorts is to contribute to the circulation and exhibition of Colombian short films for children and adolescents. This category, in addition to being a window to national short films, is an opportunity for boys and girls to learn about the cultural diversity and mixed races that characterize our country. The works entered in this section must not exceed 10 minutes in length.

d. U-Lab: U-Lab is the section of FesticineKids dedicated to the promotion of works produced by new filmmakers. Therefore, this category will include short films of no more than 15 minutes in length, made by university and technological students from the Caribbean Region, aimed at children and young people, with the participation of children and youth actors in their casting.

e. Experimental Kids: Experimental Kids is a contest for short films made by students from educational institutions in the Caribbean Region. Its purpose is, on the one hand, to encourage filmmaking by children and adolescents and, on the other hand, to promote the training of new filmmakers. Short films must have a maximum duration of 5 minutes.

Regulations

1.1. Registration of works:

1.1.1. Terms and Conditions:

I. Registration fee: The registration of productions in any category is free of charge.

II. Nationality of works: Colombian and foreign works, as well as co-productions, may be entered in the official feature film competition. There will be no limit to the number of productions per country. In the official short film competition, films made in any country other than Colombia may be entered. In the Colombia in Shorts section, only short films made in Colombia or national co-productions may be entered. In the Experimental Kids section, only films made by students from educational institutions in the Caribbean Region will be accepted; and in the U-Lab section, only short films made by university students and technical and technological students from the Caribbean Region will be accepted.

III. Year of production: Only works made between 2023 and 2025 may be entered in the competitive sections.

IV. language and subtitling: In all competitive sections, films filmed in any language may be submitted. However, films made in a language other than Spanish must have Spanish and english subtitles, or be dubbed into Spanish and have english subtitles. Special consideration will be given to productions made without dialogue.

V. Submission Form: Regardless of the method chosen for the submission of a work, its formalization requires the completion of the form designed for this purpose. The registration form can be downloaded from www.festicinekids.org/inscripcion/. PRODUCTIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT AN ENTRY FORM.

1.2. Ways of registration:

a. Via Festhome: Through this channel, the screener and detailed information of the work to be registered can be sent. However, the festival registration form (published at www.festicinekids.org/inscripcion/) in pdf format must be sent to gerardonietoco@yahoo.com.


REMEMBER:
The entry form, screener and director's bio-filmography are essential requirements for the registration of a work.

Selection:

I. The Festival Director, with the advice of the Selection Committee, reserves the right to accept, choose or invite the films that will participate in the competition.

II. Communication: Interested parties will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their production by e-mail. They may also be notified through the website and social networks of the FesticineKids Foundation (Website: festicinekids.org; Facebook: Festicinekids Foundation; Twitter: @FesticineKids; Instagram: @festicinekids).

III. The filmmakers of the selected productions must provide a link for viewing the films to the public on the day and time stipulated by the festival. In addition, send to the mail inscripciones.festicinekids@gmail.com the press kit of the film, the trailer and photos of the work.

Rights of the organization:

I. Transfer of rights: The films selected to make up the film showcase of each section of the festival will only be screened by the FesticineKids Foundation in the free screenings and screenings that are part of FesticineKids 27, and of the replicas that are made of the same in other municipalities and cities of Colombia. The inclusion of such works in the programming of other educational projects developed by the Foundation requires the prior authorization of the authors.

II. The present call and regulations may be expanded and/or modified. Possible changes may be consulted on the web page www.festicinekids.org and through the e-mail gerardonietoco@yahoo.com.

III. Questions, doubts and/or clarifications regarding this call and regulations will be answered through the e-mail gerardonietoco@yahoo.com

IV. The registration of a film means the acceptance of these rules and regulations.

Gerardo Nieto Núñez
Director
FesticineKids Foundation
FesticineKids 27