Consider Belmont World Film’s Family Festival
View the festival trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzi8KRjhQfY

Belmont World Film’s Family Festival goes completely virtual this year, expanding from its typical four days to ten to allow audience members to view film at their leisure (although once you start a film, you’ll have 48 hours to watch it).

The Festival provides children age 3-12 and their families the opportunity to see some of the world’s most remarkable current films for children—films that provide a window into the lives of kids in other cultures, races, and ethnicities—plus the chance to participate in several exciting workshops, including:

• Junior Film Critics Workshop with Joyce Kulhawik and Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr on January 16th and 17th
• Learn to Model Gromit or Shaun the Sheep with Aardman Animation’s Senior Model Maker on January 23rd (three sessions available)

SHORT FILM PROGRAMS FOR AGE 3-8

• Animal Magnetism: Mostly wordless, short, animated films about animals from Magnet Films, a distributor of award-winning shorts, including many Oscar winners!
• Celebrating 100 Years of Scholastic Books: The newest, never before seen films, as well as some of our favorite classics from Weston Woods Studios, Scholastic’s filmmaking arm that turns some of the best loved children’s picture books into high quality films.
  (Staff pick!)
• Hungry Bear Tales: Stories for young children and their parents, full of sidesplitting humor and delicious food! Cuddly bears Ned and Mishka, characters based on the books by Zbyněk Černík, are best friends who share a cosy house in the forest.
• LOL with Mo Willems Films: This program includes some of our favorites films based on the books by children’s author Mo Willems, who can make children and adults laugh out loud like no one else! He not only writes and illustrates his own books, but also narrates the animated films that are created by Scholastic/Weston Woods Studios.
• Zog/Zog and the Flying Doctors: Zog and the Flying Doctors is the follow up to last year’s Zog, in which a keen but accident-prone dragon learns how to fly, roar, breathe fire, and save a princess during his first year at Dragon School. In this sequel, Zog, Pearl and Gadabout are now a flying doctor trio caring for creatures, including a mermaid, a unicorn, and a sneezy lion. Features the voices of comedians Tracy Ullman, Sir Lenny Henry, and Rob Brydon, plus Game of Thrones’ Kit Harrington and Fleabag’s Hugh Skinner.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMS FOR AGE 5-10

• Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The ideals and people connected to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as interpreted by Scholastic/Weston Woods Studios.
• Made in Portugal: Short Animated Films by and for Kids: A collection of award-winning, short animated films created and narrated by 8-10 year old students at the ANILUPA Animation Centre, an educational and cultural center created by Associação de Ludotecas do Porto (ALP), a professional animation studio in Porto. The films tell stories about Portuguese culture, daily life, and traditions.

FEATURE LENGTH FILMS FOR AGE 8+

• Angel: An 11 year-old girl named Angel finds a gold watch that makes her wishes become reality.
• Fahim, the Little Chess Prince: Based on the true story of Fahim Mohammad, who fled from Bangladesh to Paris when he was only 8 and initially refused asylum, only to be crowned France’s Under-12 Chess Champion in 2012.
• Forward: A moving documentary for kids and about kids making a difference in the world no matter what their age. The film focuses on José Adolfo, who founded a ground-breaking eco-bank for poor children and young people in his native Peru when he was just 8 years old. (Staff Pick!)
• Jackie & Oopjen: While wandering around after hours at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum where her mom is a curator, 12 year-old Jackie discovers that Oopjen, one of the subjects of Rembrandt’s famous paintings, has suddenly come to life, looking for her long lost sister who was painted by an unknown painter.
• Kusasa: A youth soccer team journeys from their home in Groendal in South Africa to compete in finals of the Gothia Cup – the world’s largest international soccer tournament for youths held each year in Sweden.
• Microplastic Madness: Fifth graders from P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn took action on plastic pollution by collecting local data, leading community outreach, and informing policy by testifying and rallying at City Hall. Then they took action in their cafeteria to eliminate all single-use plastic!
• The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily: Based on Dino Buzzati’s classic book of the same name about how a group of bears came to live with one another for a short time, written in 1945 toward the end of World War II.

January 15th – 24th
Link to virtual festival https://watch.eventive.org/bwffamilyfest

Take some time for yourself, expand your interests and connect with community. Check out virtual classes and workshops offered by JCC Greater Boston.

Topics include babies and parenting, the benefits of Cannabis and CBD, cooking and baking, upcycling crochet, helping children learn to read, virtual gatherings for new parents and single parents and more! Explore all classes at bostonjcc.org/adultclasses. For more information contact family@jccgb.org.