Granny Ranny's Coming Attractions

This fall, KIDS FIRST! celebrates its 33 anniversary! Since 1991 KIDS FIRST! has been empowering young people to become critical media consumers. Our programs equip kids and their parents with the tools to discern age-appropriate content and make informed choices.

Our KIDS FIRST! Film Critics program is a cornerstone of our efforts to feature kids helping kids make good media choices.

https://www.tiktok.com/@kidsfirstmedia/video/7413164716668898591

Our team of 65 dedicated young reporters, ages 9 to 22, immerse themselves in the world of film, attending press screenings, junkets, and red carpet events. They review the latest PG-13 and under-rated films, interview celebrities, and share their insights with over 5 million people through our website, social media, and partner publications.

Today, we are at a critical junction. To sustain and grow these impactful programs, we need your support. Just take a look: we are at 52% of our goal!

https://fundrazr.com/kidsfirstglobal

As we celebrate our 33rd anniversary, we ask for your help. While our young reporters volunteer their time, our dedicated staff – responsible for training, coaching, editing, and promoting their work – requires financial support.

Another cornerstone of KIDS FIRST! is our Film Festival. We curate a collection of inspiring films that promote pro-social values, cultural understanding, environmental responsibility, and gender and racial equity. We have successfully co-hosted screenings with 30 venues across the USA and now in 4 countries: Pakistan, Uganda and India where we will reach over 500,000 youth and families in 2025.

Our goal is to cultivate a generation of informed and conscientious consumers. We measure our success not by awards, but by the positive impact we make on young lives.

As we celebrate our 33rd Anniversary, please help us shape future generations by making a donation of $33, $330, or $3300. And, just to sweeten the pot, thanks for a generous supporter, we have matching funds to match dollar-for-dollar your donation, up to $25,000.

https://fundrazr.com/kidsfirstglobal

With your support, we can continue to empower young people to make informed choices, shaping a brighter future for generations to come.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,

Ranny Levy and the KIDS FIRST! Team

Are you passionate about media?
Do you love talking about the latest films or TV shows?
Do you imagine yourself as an entertainment reporter? Look no further. We have a place for you where you can do all that and more!
We invite you to audition for our KIDS FIRST! Film Critics Team here: https://www.kidsfirst.org/become-a-juror/

Fill out our online audition form. Along with your personal information (which we do not share), you’ll be asked to submit a sample 200 word written review of a film or TV show and to upload a brief video about yourself to our dropbox folder.

Next, our staff reviews your application and schedule an online audition. Don’t be discouraged; we don’t expect you to get it 100% right the first time. And, we’re looking for kids who are able to be coached.

We will notify you whether you are accepted or if you need to work on your skills a bit more.

Once you are accepted, you’ll be asked to complete our six-week online training course, so you are well prepared before you undertake your first assignment.

Upon successfully completing this course, you’ll be invited to join our KIDS FIRST! Film Critics national team of reporters where you will be assigned films, TV shows and other media to watch and review. You will watch shows before they are released; you will interview celebrities on and off the red carpet; you will attend behind-the-scenes events for new film and digital releases. We ask that you make a one year commitment to working with us. Most kids stay longer than that.

Sound like what you’re looking for!
Go here to for additional information. 

https://www.kidsfirst.org/become-a-juror/

Take a look at what our awesome reporters are doing.

Contact us if you would like additional information

Today, one week into our annual year-end fundraising campaign, we’ve reached 20% of our goal, thanks to generous people like you! Please help us reach 100% so we can continue our important work in children’s media, which often changes lives one person at a time.

As we begin our 33rd year, I’ve been reflecting on our journey and our vision for the future. When I co-founded KIDS FIRST! in September 1991, little did I know that it would evolve into my life’s most defining work. A casual conversation with my colleague, Paula Miller, marked a turning point in my life. We, along with a few others from the children’s media industry, had been toying with the idea of creating a service that would help parents choose quality programming for their children. Paula, having recently been laid off, posed a question that forced me to confront my own commitment to this idea. She asked, “Are you serious about doing this?” Her question was a wake-up call. It was time to either fully commit to this idea or let it go.

By the end of our first meeting, we had developed a business plan to start a nonprofit and created a list of potential board members. As she drove away, we literally tore that list in half and began making phone calls. I still remember calling Peggy Charren (Founder, Action for Children’s Television), who grilled me like I was on the witness stand before saying, “Oh sure, you’re fun to talk with. I’m in!” After that, things began to flow pretty smoothly, though we definitely had our ups and downs. We launched the concept at VSDA (some of you remember that conference), where Bruce Apar, Editor of Video Business, approached me and said, “You need me on your board.” We did! Many other critical people joined us along the way and I’ll share some of those stories at a later time.

What I did not know at the beginning is how this organization would grow and become so much more than meets the eye. On the surface, we teach media literacy in action to our team of 65 tween and teen reporters who review the latest films and interview the cast and crew. But KIDS FIRST! is so much more. We have created a community where these young people can engage with media professionals in a dialogue that makes children’s media relevant. We build lifelong friendships for young people with a shared interest in storytelling, filmmaking, and investing in their future. We help them find their purpose and become leaders who impact the lives of others in a meaningful way.

Please help us meet our end of year goal by making a contribution yourself and sharing our story with friends, family and colleagues. Every little bit helps, whether it is $5 or $1500.

Are you a kid who loves film, loves talking about film and loves to be on-camera? If so, we want you on our national KIDS FIRST! Film Critics team! This audition is open to those wishing to be join our national KIDS FIRST! Film Critics team. To audition, click on the link below to apply. Auditions are open tweens and teens, ages 9 to 16. There are three short steps to enter. There is no fee to participate in this program, but there is a fee to take either our quick start course or one of our boot camps.

Go here to for more information: https://www.kidsfirst.org/become-a-juror/

Deadlines to apply: July 23, 2022.

Before applying, please familiarize yourself with our program by visiting our website https://www.kidsfirst.org/ where you can watch and read our KIDS FIRST! Film Critics’ reviews. Visit our “about us” page to read more about the organization. https://www.kidsfirst.org/about-us/#kf

Watch our sizzle reel to see a sample of our youth reporters on assignment.

Questions: Email us at [email protected] or call 505.989.8076. We look forward to hearing from you.

KIDS FIRST! and Xerb.tv launched a new, ad-free digital streaming service for high quality children’s programming earlier this spring. The content is curated from filmmakers from all around the world and the bulk of the revenue from the channel will go directly to the filmmakers. The rapidly growing Xerb.tb is providing KIDS FIRST! a platform to deliver a collection of family-friendly content that is inspirational, enriching and motivational.

“What the KIDS FIRST! Digital Channel (https://xerb.tv/channel/kidsfirst) offers families is engaging, informative and fun content with pro-social values that both kids and parents love,” comments Ranny Levy, founder and president of KIDS FIRST! “It’s not so easy to find programming like this in the jungle of digital channels, but KIDS FIRST! has 28 years experience in doing just that.”

The partnership came about when Levy met Xerb.tv founder, Eric Streeper, at a film event in Santa Fe, NM, where both companies are headquartered. Streeper, a Santa Fe native, spent eight years working in tech/entertainment in Los Angeles. The idea to create Xerb.tv came after working for a wildly popular YouTube star who, despite having a very large audience, wasn’t generating very much revenue from the platform. Streeper saw an opportunity to help filmmakers take control of their work and develop an audience to support it. While visiting his hometown two years ago, the creative and entrepreneurial energy there impressed Streeper and he realized it was the ideal place to launch his new media company. “Our goal is to level the playing field for creators,” Streeper proclaims, “and help them access the same resources that the big entertainment companies have.” When he met Levy he thought, “What a great way to give families access to programming that has been vetted by parents and kids reviewers alike through their extensive review process.”

KIDS FIRST! has a team of more than 100 kids and adults that review and recommend films with no algorithms involved. The KIDS FIRST! reviewers go through extensive training to assure continuity in film selection. The films on the channel represent the diversity of the filmmakers who made them –  from a documentary following the first Roma/Gipsy youth soccer team in Italy to one about educating girls in India. A high school student has created an animated series about the Mars Rovers. A Spanish film follows a 9-year-old boy dealing with loss. Another short is about a girl and her pet pig. A music video tells what it’s like to be an engineer. A feature film explores a changing mother/son dynamic and another one reveals the true story of an 11-year-old foster child with brittle bone disease who overcame his problems and directs his first musical. For a quick overview of the channel, check out the trailer at https://bit.ly/2T5LL1fLinks

KIDS FIRST! Channel: https://xerb.tv/channel/kidsfirst
KIDS FIRST! website: https://www.kidsfirst.org
Xerb website: https://xerb.tv
KIDS FIRST! and Xerb assets: https://landing.xerb.tv/assets

Stats
Number of films: 129
Number of filmmakers: 50
Number of countries: 17
Number of languages: 13
Price: $5.99/month

ABOUT KIDS FIRST! KIDS FIRST! Digital Channel is project of the 28-year-old national nonprofit (501-c-3) Coalition for Quality Children’s Media whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s media. KIDS FIRST! Digital Channel is an online space where kids and families can watch movies that both inspire and teach – and where parents don’t have to worry about what their kids are watching. A former educator, Levy created an award-winning PBS show, produced an ACE-nominated television show and managed an independent film production and distribution company in the mid 80s. In 1991, Levy founded the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media and its KIDS FIRST! program. The KIDS FIRST! Digital Channel features original animated programming, music videos, feature length films and international programming from 17 different countries, teaching about people and cultures world-wide. You can access the channel at https://xerb.tv/channel/kidsfirst

About Xerb.tv Xerb.tv is a streaming service, similar to Netflix, but different. Xerb.tv allows independent filmmakers and organizations to create tailored subscription channels and share them with a devoted fan-base. Xerb.tv is  changing how creators get paid online, how they build their audience, and how they collaborate with each other — all in an incredibly simple way. The future of content is independent. Are you a content creator, or want to run a channel? If you want to engage directly with an audience that loves your work and build a sustainable business around what you’re passionate about, we want to hear from you! Send us a message and come join our beta partner program. Xerb.tv is built for you.

We are accepting submissions for KIDS FIRST! Film Festival. If you have a great film for kids and families that you wish to get played at venues all across the country, this is your opportunity to submit it. We have more than 50 venue affiliates who use the KIDS FIRST! vetted programming for their youth and family programs. Each KIDS FIRST! venue partner offers awards and prizes, and may cover your travel expense to attend. There is a plethora of potential awards awaiting you. Just think, for one entry fee, you have 50 venues considering your film. That makes our application fee dirt cheap! Upcoming deadlines are:

April 6, 2019: Early Bird Deadline
May 18, 2019: Regular Deadline
June 89, 2019 : Late Deadline

The KIDS FIRST! Film Festival showcases new and classic children’s films, TV programs and DVDs from studios, independent producers and youth producers. Please read our festival description carefully and do not submit if your film does meet our baseline criteria. This is a great way to spread your promotional budget by submitting once to KIDS FIRST!, you reach 50 venues. That does not mean all 50 festivals will play yours, but it will be considered.

Please be sure to note that KIDS FIRST! Film Festival partners do not pay licensing fees. The films that are played at their events are offered for FREE. There is no individual admission charged, although there may be an overall festival admission fee.

Each KIDS FIRST! venue partner offers their own awards and prizes. KIDS FIRST! does not award prizes or awards. Accepted feature films will get a First Look opportunity for distribution by Engine 15 Media Group and Soundview Media Partners. We are looking for indie and student productions, short, features and documentaries. We have special categories for Faith Based programs, Spanish language programs, environmental programs and episodic titles.

To enter, go here.

For more information, go to http://www.kidsfirst.org/submit-a-title/

To see the latest films added to our festival, go here: https://www.kidsfirst.org/filmfestival/selections.html