Release Your Kid's Inner Movie Critic at the LA Children's Film Festival

4/10/13 - By Roberta B

It's a kid's dream come true: we want to hear everything your kids have to say about a movie!

In fact, we want to do more than that: we want to invite your kids to see a couple of kids' films for free and THEN tell us what they think about them. And we want to publish their very important opinions right here on this website for other kids and adults to see. In short, we want to turn your kids into film critics for the  Los Angeles Children's Film Festival in Santa Monica this month.

We are recruiting our team of critics by the end of day on Thursday, April 11, so that we can invite them to their special preview screenings on Saturday, April 13, at either 10am or 11:45am.

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

Saturday's preview screenings will include a brief workshop in which our panel of Kid Critics get some professional guidance on how to write a movie review. The kids then get to watch either a one-hour feature (Meet the Small Potatoes) or a selection of shorts - or both if they prefer. The newly crowned critics then go home and write up their thoughts, dictate them to their PA (Parent Assistant), or record and post a video review on youtube.

The results? Famous journalist in the family, plus other families can read our Kid Critic reviews before choosing which films to watch in the Children's Film Festival April 26 - May 5, 2013. All reviews will be posted on our Kid Critic Page.

The festival, incidentally, features personal appearances by the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis and director Richard Bowen. Attendees are also to be treated to a sound effects show-and-tell, a live stage performance, and animation demonstrations with the Chuck Jones Creativity Center. Kid Critics can hob-knob with the entertainment industry elite by helping to present the films they review. And if your friends buy tickets to see your child in the spotlight, $3 per ticket can be a donation to your child's school!

All participants take home a gift, and the three critics whose reviews are most popular with our readers can win movie tickets for their whole family to an American Cinematheque family feature later in the season.

The films selected for our Kid Critics are recommended for kids ages 5-10.

Los Angeles Chikdlren's Film Festival Kid CriticsHow to enter

Submissions for kid critic are being accepted through April 11, 2013.

In order to participate, children need to be available to view films in the festival at an advance screening in Santa Monica on Saturday, April 13, 2013 from 10am to 11:30am OR 11:45am to 1pm. The 10am program will be an hour-long compilation of short films; kids can choose one or more of the short films to review. The 11:45am program will consist of one hour-long screening of The Painting. Both programs will begin with a 15-minute pre-session about what to look for in the films in order to write a compelling review. Unfortunately DVD copies of the films are not available to take home; the only viewing will be at the theater on April 13.

Reviews are due to Mommy Poppins by April 20, 2013.

To apply to be a Kid Film Critic for the Los Angeles Children's Film Festival, kids should e-mail their name and age to sidgrauman@gmail.com with a sentence or two sharing an opinion about a film that they like. This sample review can be written (or dictated to a parent) or posted as a spoken review on youtube with a link to it. We will be looking for critics who are able to use descriptive language detailing why they like the characters, stories, animation style, etc. in a film.

Hope to see you at the movies on Saturday!

Places featured in this article: