Children’s Film Festival begins

LAHORE:The 12th Lahore International Children's Film Festival (LICFF) begins Friday on Starzplay. Presenting in collaboration with 24 national and international organisations, the festival is showing 158 films from 24 countries in 16 languages.

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

These included Dr 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 Muhammad - Chairman Cinepax Group and StarzPlay, Talha Ali Kushvaha - Executive Director Lok Virsa, Islamabad, Valerie Khan – Executive Director, Group Development Pakistan, Baela Raza Jamil - CEO Idara-e-Taleem--Aagahi (ITA), Saddam Siddique - I Am Karachi, Tabinda Jabeen - Teachers' Resource Centre (TRC), Prof Sajida Haider Vandal – Vice-Chancellor, Institute of Art and Culture, Allauddin Jameel, Haya Fatima Iqbal and Raziq Faheem.

Founder and Festival Director Shoaib Iqbal said, “It has become such a loved project for children and they want us to make the festival happen every year, so now we cannot stop it. We hope that the journey we started today will reach to several thousand families of Pakistan.”

"These Initiatives are very important for children. Intelligence and talent are like a seed and these initiatives work as water for them to grow. It is a pleasure to be a part of it," said Dr Fouzia Saeed - Director General PNCA. Consistency gives you strength and opportunity to grow. The children are the nursery of ideas & mental makeup. These initiatives help children to grow rightly, said WCLA Director General Kamran Lashari. "When I look at our country, I see that we have 200M narratives and that is all about cinema & cinema is all about narratives. We are very happy to see this festival going online and congratulations to you and your team," Arif Baig.

"It is like a dream coming true and I congratulate you and the whole team for this festival," said Saman Rai - Executive Director of Alhamra Arts Council. "I had the opportunity to see the festival grow and the consistency with which they took up is commendable. Congratulations and I’m delighted to be the part of it," said Talha Ali Kushvaha - Executive Director Lok Virsa.

"Film is a very conducive tool for children. Through film watching they get knowledge and it is also a way to give new perspectives. Arts is a language and through filmmaking, they can share how they feel about things," said Valerie Khan - Executive Director GD. "Art takes you towards critical thinking and everyone has the ability to think and process ideas. Film is a way of communicating ideas and art teaches you tolerance and how to communicate those ideas," said Prof Sajida Vandal – Vice-Chancellor IAC. The festival will run online until 21 November, 2020 and has planned to reach to five million children across Pakistan.