KIDS FIRST! Film Festival
"It's Like Cannes, But For Kids!"
Venue Application
We welcome you to partner with the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival to showcase a collection of films curated by our KIDS FIRST! jurors for your audience. Since 2000, the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival has partnered with established film festivals, publishers, youth advocacy organizations, film societies and others screening films made for and by children from independent and student filmmakers worldwide as well as a select group of studio films.
A. Criteria: All films in the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival curated collection meet the KIDS FIRST! criteria including:
- NO gratuitous violence or abuse;
- NO inappropriate sexual behavior;
- NO bias in terms of race, gender, culture or religion;
- NO condescension toward children;
- NO replicable unsafe behavior.
Additionally, the films selected must have an uplifting message and be appropriate for a youth and family audience, between the ages of 2 and 18. KIDS FIRST! will identify which age category each film is most appropriate for: 2 to 5, 5 to 8, 8 to 12 and 12 to 18. Some films may be suitable for more than one age category. All selected films have been screened and evaluated by the KIDS FIRST! adult and youth jurors, who also make the age recommendation.
B. Programming. All of the films available to you may be screened on the KIDS FIRST! password protected film programmer’s website.
All the films are either in English or have English subtitles. Each selection will include our recommended audience age, the film’s synopsis, and a summary of our jurors’ comments.
2023 Newly Accepted films (144):
(Contact us for access)
We also have sub-categories such as: Feature, Art, Covid Recovery, and Films for and about the Black Community, Bullying, Documentary, Student films, Music Videos, Environment/Climate Change, Animation, Foreign Films, Media that Matters, films for and about Native Americans.
Our entire collection of over 800 films may be viewed at: (contact us for access)
C. Selection:
We know that selecting programming can be daunting, so we offer our curatorial services to you for a fee, based on the number of films you are looking for. We can select them by genre, age appropriateness, or any of the criteria mentioned above.
Things to know:
- Some films will be limited to screen only at live screenings.
- Others will have digital rights so they may be played at virtual or hybrid festivals.
- Please be sure you do not screen films at virtual events that we do not have the rights for.
- The screenings / festival should be co-branded with your organization’s name together with KIDS FIRST! Film Festival.
- You may select to host a live event, an online event, or a hybrid event. Please let us know which way you plan to go.
D. Ordering Process:
Once you make your selection of films from the KIDS FIRST! programmers’ site, notify us of your selections and the times & dates of your screenings. We will add them to your folder on the programmers’ site and allow you to download them from there.
- Send your notification to [email protected]
- Remember that we need your selections 6 weeks before your first event.
- For assistance in programming, please contact us at [email protected]
- Once your programming selection is complete, KIDS FIRST! will provide you with contact information for each filmmaker, so you can contact them about additional assets, attending your festival, participating in interviews (online or live) and similar.
E. Responsibilities for Your Organization
- Notify KIDS FIRST! of your selected films from the KIDS FIRST! curated collection.
- Deadline: Your final selection is due at least 6 weeks before your opening day
- Publicize your event to your constituency and community.
- When you promote your event on social media, tag KIDS FIRST! and we will repost.
- Links to our social media are all on the KIDS FIRST! homepage, www.kidsfirst.org.
- Co-brand your youth and family programming with KIDS FIRST! by name or logo in all promotional materials.
- Whenever you use our name, KIDS FIRST! must always be in all caps with an exclamation point at the end.
- Agree to not duplicate, edit or modify any films selected from KIDS FIRST!
- Provide appropriate venue and acceptable technical equipment for quality projection at live screenings.
- All live screenings must take place at the address listed in this agreement or KIDS FIRST! must be notified in writing of any venue changes.
- Provide an accounting from all screenings, live or virtual, with the number of attendees, press clippings, links to online publicity and similar.
F. Responsibilities of KIDS FIRST!
- Provide Organization access to the KIDS FIRST! film programmer’s site for selection of films.
- Create folder to hold Organization’s selected films and allow Organization to download the digital files from there.
- Provide access information to the filmmaker of every film selected by the Organization so they can secure promotional images in the exact format needed by Organization.
- Publicize festival to the KIDS FIRST! national audience via social media, the KIDS FIRST! website, newsletter, YouTube Chanel and publishing partners.
- Other duties, as designated in D2 above.
G. Fees. Contact us for Fee Schedule
Contact Us
Please contact our office for more information. Call 505-989-8076 or email us at [email protected].
