Reel 2 Real Film Festival for Youth unveils program for event April 7 to 16 at VIFF Centre and Roundhouse
Fest opens with animated Nina and the Hedgehog’s Secret, and features three Canadian premieres from Jordan, Costa Rica, and Germany
Costa Rica’s Sister & Sister
Closing film Coco Farm.
THIS YEAR’S REEL 2 REAL Film Festival for Youth has unveiled the full program running April 7 to 16 that centres around cultural appreciation.
Taking place at the VIFF Centre and Roundhouse Community Centre, the annual event will screen three international films making their Canadian premieres. Jordanian director Cynthia Madanat’s animated Saleem draws on songs and storytelling, focusing on the emotional experience of a young refugee; Madanat was recently named one of Screen Daily’s “Arab Stars of Tomorrow.” First-time Costa Rican writer-director-producer Kattia G. Zúñiga will debut her multi-award-winning Sister & Sister, a tender portrait of sisterhood in a sweltering Panama summer. And Boyz, by German director Sylvain Cruziat, explores male Gen Z friendship, outside the usual tropes of masculinity.
Reel 2 Real will open with an animated film for younger kids—the English-dubbed French film Nina and the Hedgehog’s Secret, from the makers of the animated classics A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy. The family-friendly mystery explores workers’ rights in a small French town and is filled with cats, dogs, criminals, and capers—including the titular tiny hedgehog.
The closing-night film will be the Canadian feature Coco Farm, about 12-year-old Max, who discovers free-run chickens in his cousin’s abandoned barn. Seeing a gap in the egg market for organic, farm-to-table offerings, he and his friends try to launch a new business that gets caught in reams of red tape. The Quebec film screens in French with English subtitles.
Several Canadian films this year expand on Indigenous themes, including the West Coast premiere of the documentary I Won’t Stand for it, about 15-year-old Winnipeg climate activist Miyawata Stout. It screens with I Place You Into the Fire, a blend of documentary, animation, and poetry, about Mi'kmaw poet and former poet laureate Rebecca Thomas, of Kjipuktuk (Halifax). Three Indigenous illustrators animate segments that visually represent Rebecca's words. And Quebec filmmaker Sophie Farkas Bolla’s Adventures in the Land of Asha, follows Jules, who’s banned from school because of his rare and unsightly skin condition. Together with a mysterious Indigenous girl named Asha, they venture to the other side of the wild forest in search of Asha's family, who may have the medicine Jules needs to cure his disease. It screens in French with English subtitles.
Meanwhile, Lower Mainland students will be attending the fest’s popular school programs, complete with screenings and study guides.
In all, Reel 2 Real is showing eight feature films and 35 shorts, from more than 25 countries and Indigenous nations, including 17 films from Canada. Six features will compete for the prestigious Edith Lando Peace Prize, which comes with a cash award of $500, to the film that “best uses the language of cinema to further the goals of peace and justice.” A jury will also decide the winner of the NFB Award for Best Animation.
You can find more info about the films, tickets, and schedules here.
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