Having commenced on November 20, the first edition of the Gaza Children's Film Festival will run till December 20.
The Red Balloon was the opening film.
Alongside the festival, there are filmmaking workshops, games, clown shows for children.
Held under the theme “We Love Life, Tomorrow,” the inaugural Gaza Children’s Film Festival is running in several makeshift places across the Palestinian territory until December 20. It opened with a screening of Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 Palme d’Or-winning short film The Red Balloon. Amidst suffering caused by Israel’s attacks, the festival seeks to catapult joy.
The one-month-long event follows the inaugural Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema in October, which opened with Kaouther Ben Hania’s fiction feature The Voice of Hind Rajab. “The festival serves as a true window of hope amid difficult circumstances, affirming that art has the power to bring life even amidst destruction,” read a statement released by the festival. “The opening festivities will take place in Gaza at the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, which was severely damaged, sending a strong message that culture can always be reborn, no matter the challenges,” it added.
The festival will also conduct filmmaking workshops for children, results of which will be screened at the end. Bombed halls and open-air spaces have been turned into spaces where kids can draw, play, get their faces painted, revel with clowns and musicians. Festival selections include Mats Grorud’s animated film The Tower, about a young Palestinian girl in a Lebanese refugee camp. There’s also The Wanted 18, an animated documentary on the efforts of Palestinians in Beit Sahour to start a small dairy industry during the First Intifada.
The festival is led by Gaza-born Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, through his Masharawi Film Fund for Films, and Filmmakers in Gaza. Rashid Masharawi’s brother, the artist and filmmaker Khamis Masharawi is festival director and filmmaker Mustafa An-Nabih is the artistic director. Both Khamis Masharawi and An-Nabih previously contributed to the Masharawi Foundation-backed collective film From Ground Zero. Culling together 22 short films glimpsing daily life under Israel’s attack, it was Palestine‘s 2025 Oscar entry.
