Sixth Annual Boston International Kids Film Festival Announces Winners

The Boston International Kids Film Festival (BIKFF) announced the award winners from the sixth annual festival, which took place November 16-18, 2018 at the Somerville Theatre and other area venues. The Boston International Kids Film Festival annually offers films made for kids and by kids, and hands-on workshops for the entire family.

This year, BIKFF presented awards for the Best Documentary, the Best Short, the Best International, the Best Student Film, the Best Student Documentary and the Audience Choice Award. The festival also presented the Peggy Charren Award for Excellence, created in honor of Peggy Charren, who worked tirelessly to achieve quality and diversity in children's television and organized the parents in her community to create an advocacy group, Action for Children's Television (ACT).

The 2018 award winners are:

Best Short Film: Chemistry 101 -Director: Mike Reft, USA

When a shy student musters up the courage to ask out his chemistry classmate, his plan goes awry after his love letter lands on the wrong student's desk.

Best Documentary: Making the Grade - Director: Brian Raftery, IRELAND

In Ireland over 30,000 students prepare for piano exams each year. Making The Grade is a musical journey through a demanding piano grading system from an absolute beginner through to accomplished pianist. It is a stirring journey of students' musical passions and perseverance, of teacher dedication, parental ambitions and the occasional musical drama.

Best Student Film: Just a Song - Director, Holden Scott

After losing their parents to a tragic accident, three east coast kids adjust to their new lives on the west coast. Gabe and Hanna move in with cousins they've never met, while their older sister, Emma, prepares to leave for college. Lonely and distraught, Gabe copes by immersing himself in music, giving his cousin, Carter, a special idea to help establish a new family bond.

Best International: Three August Days - Director: Madli Laane, ESTONTIA

In the midst of the political upheaval of the early 1990s, an Estonian girl and a Russian boy reach across cultural lines to unite over a shared bottle of Coke.

Best Student Documentary: T(he)Y Director, Caroline Callender, USA

Dakota Nieves and Indiana Baker explore their experiences growing up as transgender high school students in New York City. (language)

Audience Choice Award: A Chance to Stand Director: Silas Hagerty and Smooth Feather Youth, USA

Suspended, depressed, isolated, and outside the circle, Eric slowly finds his way back into the heart of the community through an unlikely encounter with a local high school band.

Peggy Charren Award for Excellence: Raw Art Works, USA

Located in Lynn, Massachusetts, RAW Art Works is a youth arts organization, rooted in art therapy. At its core, RAW believes that all kids should be seen and heard and that everyone has a story to tell. RAW offers a variety of free programming from painting to filmmaking, for kids ages 7-19. RAW uses art to ask kids "what is really going on" in their lives, giving them the tools to create in unexpected ways, and envision new possibilities for their future.

"We couldn't be more excited to have presented RAW Art Works with the Peggy Charren Award for Excellence. The work they do is completely in line with BIKFF's mission to inspire kids to use the media to tell their own stories and it is an honor to recognize this organization, said Laura Azevedo, executive director of Filmmakers Collaborative, the festival's presenter. "We congratulate all the other winners as well as all the filmmakers that had films screened at this year's festival. Each and every one serves as an inspiration to young filmmakers."

Over 50 films were accepted to this year's festival, representing 16 countries and included feature-length films and documentaries, shorts appropriate for ages 10 and under and short films for middle school students and older. Roughly 40% of the films screened were student-made, with the producers and directors being 18 years or younger.

The Boston International Kids Film Festival is a project of Filmmakers Collaborative (FC), a non-profit organization that encourages and supports the making of great films and media projects by people of all ages and experience levels. FC offers grants management, mentoring and workshops to a diverse and national community that includes award-winning PBS documentarians, first-time producers and directors, and young people just discovering the power and potential of visual media. For more information, please go to: www.filmmakerscollab.org.