Season’s Report – 11th LICFF 2019

Celebrating the 11th year of LICFF – we had amazingly successful events in Lahore.

LICFF (Lahore International Children’s Film Festival) a project of The Little Art, has been bringing some of the world’s best films, made for, by and about children and youth to Pakistan since 2007. The Festival has been pivotal to entertain, inspire and educate thousands of children in several cities across Pakistan.

The Little Art is a non-profit arts education organization that uses the medium of art to promote social values among children and young adults in Pakistan and empower them on various social issues.

This year has seen a record-breaking 3137 film entries from 114 countries. Selected 116 films presented from 27 countries including Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates.

11th LICFF Brochure (PDF)
11th LICFF Poster (PDF)

Children from the different strata of society were invited to watch these educational and entertaining films.

These diverse range of films, that included all genres like short animation, short live action films, fiction, non-fiction and documentaries that revolved around issues related to education, creativity, relationships, values, dreams, our environment etc., a selection of films made by children themselves and even films made by young children of Pakistan.

Asghar Nadeem Syed, Playwright/Drama serial writer

Asghar Nadeem Syed is a Playwright, Art Critic, Short Story Writer, Poet, Columnist, Translator and Media Consultant. He is one of the most popular Pakistani writers currently in the field. He has written television plays, poetry, short stories, drama serials as well as news columns.

Asghar has written famous television drama serials such as Hawaian, Chand Grehan, Nijat, Ghulam Gardish and Piyaas. He is very popular amongst his colleagues, and his work is considered to be exceptionally good. Heart touching storylines such as that of Khuda Zameen Se Gaya Nahin have really placed Asghar Nadeem Syed as one of the most renowned Pakistani writers. He also writes his own column, which is published in the Pakistan Herald.

Wajiha Raza Rizvi

Wajiha Raza Rizvi, currently President of the Pakistan National Association of Fulbright Alumni and Fulbright Alumni Association Lahore and Head of Chevening Alumni Punjab; trained in the USA, UK, Norway and Pakistan, is Co-chair of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Gender and Communication Section. Along with being a Life member of Honorary Board of Governors of London Film and Media. She designates as the Founding Director of Film Museum Society Pakistan, and is an associate professor of  MS, Department of Theatre / School of Media & Mass Communication Beaconhouse National University Pakistan. As an NCA graduate herself, Rizvi received the Chughtai award for excellence in design. She was also an Associate professor/ project director into pioneering the Film and TV department at NCA.

Rizvi travelled to the UK on scholarship under Commonwealth award scheme (FCOSAS) to study television production techniques at North East Media Training Centre and did her MA in Television Documentary from Goldsmiths’ University of London on Chevening and PhD from University of the Punjab Lahore. Rizvi has released film studies and researches worldwide from entries for Women’s Encyclopedia and Islamic cultures and Danesname-ye-Jahan e Islam (An Encyclopedia of Islamic history for 14 decades now). The University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of York Canada included her research in the university syllabi.

From working in public and private sectors, Rizvi, has about 100 television productions and commercials to her credit. She produced 65 SAF Stars Quiz Shows to raise funds for the 9^th SAF Games among the seven SAARC nations in Pakistan.

Tazeen Bari

Tazeen Bari is a documentary director, producer and cinematographer based in Pakistan.  Her film “Matkay Pay Thappa” screened across Pakistan, India and at the Women of the World Festival in the UK. In 2016 she made a film under the mentorship of legendary Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.

In 2017, her documentary on the late slain social media star Qandeel Baloch was released by Guardian documentaries and won the Women Voices Now award. Tazeen has worked as a producer for two time academy award winning director Sharmeen Obaid and also produced an episode for the Emmy Nominated Vice series WOMAN with Gloria Steinem. She completed a documentary “Vote for X” that follows a transgender candidate standing in the general election that has screened at multiple international film festivals.

She is currently in post-production for a documentary on the death penalty in Pakistan scheduled to be released by Al Jazeera and in production for “Heroines: A South Asian Trilogy” that portrays personal stories of women in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh’s film industry. Her Islamabad based company KINO films specializes in the production of documentary films. Tazeen is one of the founding members of the Documentary Association of Pakistan and is also currently developing her first fictitious script.

Muhammad Ali Ijaz

Muhammad Ali Ijaz graduated from National College of Arts in 2009 with a degree in Film and Television Production. He has been making documentaries for various national and international organizations, telling stories on plethora of themes for UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, WWF, World Animal Protection, Time Magazine, to name a few.

His profound mission is making films on wildlife conservation and environmental issues which explore the intricate relationship between man and nature. Amongst his several victories he received the WWF – Living Planet Award in 2011, for his documentary “Missing Vultures” which portrayed the disappearance of Vultures from Pakistan and its consequences. And, a more recent triumph was his award winning documentary “Pangolins in Peril – A Story of Rare Scales”, screened at film festivals around the world predominantly in USA, India, Russia and Finland.

His nature films have been screened in hundreds of schools across Pakistan as a part of WWF-Pakistan’s education and outreach program, helping fill a void in natural history programming in the country. From features in British red cross to Youlin magazine to film festivals in several parts of the world; at home in Pakistan Ali is the founder and director of Documentary Foundation of Pakistan and currently teaches filmmaking at the Institute for Art and Culture in Lahore.

Ijaz believes in documentary filming being a strong agent used to inform, educate and inspire millions who dream with open eyes.

Best in Short Animation Category;

Film Name: Zog
Directed by: Max Lang, Daniel Snaddon
Country: United Kingdom

Best in Short Live Action Category;

Film Name: Son of The Sea
Directed by: Abbas Jalali Yekta
Country: Islamic Republic of Iran

Under 18 youth can make a short film (under 5 minutes) using a camera or high-quality cell phone and send it to the competition.

Through this competition, we aim to give young and adults an opportunity to showcase their talent of filmmaking in LICFF, as well as other International Children’s Film Festival around the world. Individuals and groups can participate in the competition.

This year we received 65 films from 37 schools/universities and around 350 children and youth (under 18) participated in the competition. Festival screened selected 26 films from 9 cities across Pakistan and awarded the following positions;

Thank you to Partners, Schools and Volunteers

We thank the children, youth, teachers, parents and families for constantly believing in us, our partners for their constant support, media for helping us raise awareness, our volunteers for managing everything with great expertise, and everyone else for spreading the word.