Celebrating the 12th year of LICFF – This year we had an amazingly online festival streaming from 21st August to 21 November 2020.

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 LICFF presented 158 films from 24 countries in 16 language.

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.

Festival Opening Session

Three inaugural sessions were held to mark the beginning of the festival. The guest speakers included representatives from partner organizations sharing their views and well wishes for the festival.’

The speakers included

  • Fouzia Saeed – Director General Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA)
  • Kamran Lashari – Director General Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA)
  • Saman Rai – Executive Director Alhamra Arts Council
  • Arif Baig Mohamed – Chairman Cinepax Group and StarzPlay
  • Talha Ali Kushvaha – Executive Director Lok Virsa, Islamabad
  • Sajida Haider Vandal – Vice Chancellor, Institute of Art and Culture
  • Valerie Khan – Executive Director, Group Development Pakistan
  • Baela Raza Jamil – CEO Idara-e-Taleem–Aagahi (ITA)
  • Saddam Siddique – I Am Karachi
  • Tabindah Jabeen – Teachers’ Resource Center (TRC)
  • Allauddin Jameel, Doaba Foundation
  • Haya Fatima Iqbal – Documentary Association of Pakistan
  • Raziq Faheem – College of Youth Activism and Development (CYAAD)

Talks and Workshops with National and International Filmmakers

The Festival organized online talks and workshops with the international filmmakers for children and film enthusiast.

Festival Jury

Festival had three juries in place. A Young Jury with National and International children (Under 18 years old), a senior jury of filmmakers, and an artist’s jury.

The Festival’s senior jury includes;

  • Asghar Nadeem Syed (Play Writer)
  • Wajiha Raza Rizvi (Prof/Documentary Filmmaker)
  • Tazeen Bari (Documentary Filmmaker)
  • Ali Ijaz (Documentary Filmmaker)

 

The jury of artists includes

  • Asad J Malik (Augmented Reality Artist, Director)
  • Hamza Bangash (Director, Screenwriter, Producer)
  • Ali Gul Pir (Filmmaker, Comedian, Writer, Actor)
  • Shireen Gheba Najib (Author, Illustrator)
  • Natasha Zubair (Photographer, Graphic Designer)
  • Adeel Chishti (Photographer)
  • Sarah Peracha (Entrepreneur, Influencer)
  • Gulbeen Gulriaz (Artist, Creator, Illustrator)
  • Anam Saeed (Storyteller, Photographer)
  • Kamran Ali aka Kamran on Bike (Explorer, Storyteller, Photographer)

Young Jury

It was the first year when LICFF made the jury of children for the festival. The jury was made in three groups, under 7, 8 to 12 and 13+ young people. A total of 178 jury members from 05 countries were part of the LICFF.

Runs on StarzPlay from 21st August to 21 November 2020;

STARZ PLAY by Cinepax is Pakistan’s favorite streaming service and has been providing unlimited access to exclusive content to its customers since 2018.

The Festival ran on Starz Play for two months and reached to hundreds and thousands of children and families across Pakistan.

Partners

The LICFF was collaborated with 24 national and international organizations including;

  • Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA Islamabad)
  • Lok Virsa (Islamabad)
  • Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA Lahore)
  • Alhumra Art Council (Lahore)
  • Faiz Ghar (Lahore)
  • Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands (Islamabad)
  • Teacher’s Resource Center (TRC Karachi)
  • Olomopolo Media (Lahore)
  • Karakorum Area Development Organization (KADO Gilgit)
  • College of Youth Activism and Development (CYAAD Quetta)
  • Group Development (GD Islamabad)
  • Documentary Association of Pakistan (DAP Karachi)
  • Galaxy Lollywood (Lahore)
  • ARTS Foundation (Mirpurkhas)
  • IAM KARACHI (Karachi)
  • Institute for Arts and Culture (IAC Lahore)
  • Kinnaird Centre for Learning and Cultural Development (KCLCD)
  • Kinnaird College for Women
  • Maati TV

Festival Team

Festival Director
Shoaib Iqbal

Festival Manager/Programmer
Irfan Fayyaz

Senior Manager Development
Omar Ijaz Khan

Senior Manager Operation
Zeeshan Naveed

Media and Press
Muhammad Ajmal

School Liaison and Box Office
Awais Shafique

Volunteer Liaison
Umair Mushtaq

Website and Social Media
Umair Mushtaq

Non Linear Editor
Mudassir Hussain

Project Coordinator
Ramsha Tofique

Field Officer
Momina Iqbal

Accountant
Imran Ali

LICFF aims to continue to inspire children through film and brings the community together to watch, learn and discuss cinema. We have an immense love for the craft of filmmaking, storytelling, children and youth and inspiring them to become independent creative thinkers, dreamers and doers. We are grateful to the organisations for their support this year.