Sydney Film Festival 2017 / Family Films

image: My Life as a Zucchini The 64rd Sydney Film Festival (7-18 June) announces six family-friendly films will screen at the Festival in daytime sessions over the weekend. Even better news - Tickets for under 18s are just $13. If you have older teens in your household, a new Youth Pass will also introduce cheaper tickets to film lovers aged 18-24. Festival films will now cost young people just $72 for a bundle of six-tickets. Follow our Sydney Film Festival coverage here for younger films and also over at Film in Revolt for coverage from 12 - 18 year olds.   MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA (Ages 12 or 13+) Director: Dash Shaw | USA | 2016 | 76mins | In English Cult comic artist Dash Shaw directs a kooky end-of-the-world disaster movie for Gen Z featuring a host of indie stars and a colourful blend of animation, painting and collage. Misanthropic high school journalist Dash discovers that his dysfunctional school is built on a fault line. When an earthquake sends the building floating out to sea, where it begins to inevitably sink, Dash tries to lead his fellow students to safety. It’s a snarky and oddball disaster movie that’s part Titanic and part Ghost World. Featuring the voices of indie heroes Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, John Cameron Mitchell, Reggie Watts and Maya Rudolph, plus Susan Sarandon as Lunch Lady Lorraine, Shaw brings his singular and hilarious POV to teenage angst and activism. With its vibrant handmade and digital animation techniques, My Entire High School… won over audiences at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals. MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI (Ages 10+) Director: Claude Barras | Switzerland, France | 2016 | 88 mins | The Festival will screen the English version, plus the French version with English subtitles An Oscar-nominated Swiss-French stop-motion family animation that’s realistic and life affirming, dealing with real issues in a way that doesn’t patronise or traumatise its audience. When nine-year old Zucchini’s alcoholic mother dies, he is taken to an orphanage filled with misfits who, like himself, have been dealt a rough hand by life. Little does he know, they will soon become his de facto family, from his crush Camille to the gentle father-figure policeman Raymond. Based on a best-selling young adult novel and adapted for the screen by Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, SFF 2011), My Life as a Zucchini is an unusual, affirming but honest film that calls on its young audience's ability to empathise with lives far tougher than their own. They’ll come out heartened, strengthened and more resilient from the experience – and so will the adults who take them. PHANTOM BOY (Ages 7+) Director: Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli | France, Belgium | 2016| In English From the French team behind the Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris comes this beautifully animated supernatural crime-fighting adventure, set on the streets of New York. 11-year-old Leo is ill and can’t leave the hospital – but he can leave his body and fly around New York. One night, on one of his excursions, Leo comes across a mobster plotting a crime. The dastardly criminal is called The Man With the Broken Face: he wears a mask resembling a Picasso painting and is followed around by Rufus, his sidekick pup. To use his supernatural powers and become a super hero, Leo must team up with wheelchair-bound detective Alex and fearless journalist Mary to fight the super criminal threatening the city. With distinctive and vibrant animation, Leo’s is a mission of empowerment as he fights the good fight, as well as his own tougher health battles. RIP TIDE  (Ages 11+) Director: Rhiannon Bannenberg |Australia|2017|85 mins| English Disney star Debby Ryan makes her Australian film debut in this perfectly-pitched tween feature about surfing, romance and deciding what to do with your life. There comes a point in everyone’s life when you have to make a decision about the direction you’re going to take. For newly-18 American fashion model Cora (musician and Disney star Debby Ryan, Jessie, 16 Wishes), that time is now. She’s moved to a Australian coastal town to be with her favourite aunt, after a ‘fashion faux pas’ back home. At first she feels isolated, but soon romance and new friendships start to bloom, and Cora must decide between returning to the modelling career driven by her ambitious mother, or staying with the community that has welcomed her in. A great Aussie cast excels in this local feature by talented director Rhiannon Bannenberg, with surf scenes shot on the Illawarra coast. THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT  (Ages 12+) Director: Kirsten Carthew | Canada | 2016| 93 mins | English | Australian Premiere An urban teen encounters a mystical hunter in this charming debut feature shot in Canada’s magnificient, remote Northwest Territory. For teenager Lia (rising star Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs), the only way to truly find herself is to get lost. Lia's father sends the sullen teen to visit her grandmother in a pocket-sized First Nations community in sub-Arctic Canada. With her pink hair, faux fur coat and a dusting of attitude, Lia is immediately a fish out of water. She runs away, stealing a canoe to try and paddle back to the city, but gets lost in the wilds of her ancestral country. A chance meeting with an older hunter, Alfred (played by Duane Howard, The Revenant) leads to an unusual mentorship. Alfred is obsessed with finding a lost herd of caribou, and Lia joins him on a semi-spiritual journey to find the missing herd – and also herself. KIDS ANIMATION SHOWCASE Short animated gems from all over the world, selected for SFF by Guest Programmer Malcolm Turner.  Art, fairytales and folkstories. Felt pens, cotton wool, computers and crayons. Funny, happy, sad, thoughtful and thought-provoking. Creative, silly, serious, strange and curious! The best animation for younger audiences. The full Sydney Film Festival program will be announced on Wednesday 10 May at 11am. More details on films mentioned and ticket sales visit www.sff.org.au

FlickerKids 2017

Flickerfest have another day of school holiday entertainment sorted this Sunday with the FlickerKids short film program at 2pm at Bondi Pavilion. We have a double pass to give away to one lucky family. For your chance tell me what film you are looking forward to in the program and why - email info@artsrocket.org by Friday 6th Jan.

Full program here: http://flickerfest.com.au/programme/flickerkids-2017/

STORKS

Storks is a family friendly animated adventure into the world of package delivery, storks delivering babies is no longer a profitable business, the focus is now on the delivery of the latest mobile phones or household items.

With an all-star cast, Mr and Mrs Gardner voiced by Jennifer Anniston and the modern family’s favourite Dad Ty Burrell, have a son called Nate.  Nate is lonely and longs for a brother and his parents to pay him more attention instead of working all of the time.  One day Nate stumbles across an old book in the attic with instructions on how to order a baby from the storks and so the adventure begins.

Hunter, voiced by Kelsey Grammer is the Stork Chairman, his top employee is Junior voiced by Andy Samberg.  Junior is nominated for a big promotion if only he can get rid of Tulip, the annoying human girl who was created at the Stork factory but never got delivered to her true family due to a mix up. It is Tulip who finds the letter that Nate has written and sets off with the unwilling help of Junior to deliver the baby Nate desires.

Many obstacles are faced on the way including the very funny wolf pack and a very strange Pigeon Toady.  My only criticism of the movie is that I found Pigeon Toady difficult to understand at times, other than that I would highly recommend it, my 5 and 7 year old daughters thoroughly enjoyed it although parents, be prepared for the inevitable question of “how are babies made?” when leaving the cinema.

by Amanda and her family

Storks is now screening Nationally. 

A Beautiful Planet 3D | IMAX

Now playing at the Darling Harbour IMAX theatre is A Beautiful Planet in 3D. This astonishing documentary takes us on a genuine space mission alongside astronauts as they circle the Earth showing us our magnificent planet from the International Space Station ISS. Narrated by Academy award winner Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Toni Myers this film celebrates Earths beauty and also addresses its decay caused by our human race via global warming.

The cinematography is like nothing I have ever seen before, throughout the movie, its almost impossible to believe that what you are seeing in the film is real and untouched by CGI. We were taken on an adventure over the most wondrous places on Earth from the massive deserts of Australia to the bright night lights of the USA that look like stars on Earth. Seeing massive lightning storms from space was my 7 year olds favourite bit.

We also saw the devastation when passing over the rapidly melting ice sheets of Greenland and the scarring of the Earths surface caused by the masses of deforestation in South America. All along this tour of Earth we got a glimpse into the lives of the astronauts on board the ISS, who gave us insights into their daily life and inner workings of the space station, which was really interesting.

I absolutely loved this experience in 3D, my 7 and 3 years old kids were locked to their seats passive by this outstanding experience. This film is for all ages, its fascinating, educational and awe inspiring.

The IMAX 3D experience was a great way to see this film. Normally 3D films take you on a rollercoaster of fancy editing and movement that often makes me queasy, but this film had a calm but enjoyable rhythmic 3D sensation that I came out of the cinema visually and emotionally satisfied, and with calm and inspired kids too!

Virginia and family.

A Beautiful Planet 
IMAX | Darling Harbour
Now Screening

Friday Finds

image: Nick Miller

+ A new music and arts festival - The Lost Lands - shared experiences for families of creatives, music-lovers and the adventurous. When: October 28-31 2016, Where: Werribee Mansion (Melbourne)

+ hotDocs - Most documentaries are classified for under 18's 

+ Unicorn Youth - weekly radio show dedicated to giving young LGBTQIA+ people a voice

+ Why poetry is great for young children - Lilly Blue on Kinderling radio

+ If you have a shutterbug aged under 11 - get them snapping for this

+ JAM Online courses for kids

+ Studio Ghibli week at Golden Age Cinema in Surry Hills

+ How to talk about teenage mental health 

+ Aphex Twins first video in 17 years directed by a 12 year old YouTuber

The Red Turtle | Sydney Film Festival

a movie review by Taite (age 11)

The Red Turtle is a movie about a man that gets shipwrecked on an island, he tries to escape by building rafts but something keeps destroying it. He finds out that it was a red turtle which came on land to lay eggs the man gets angry and hits and turns over the turtle to slowly die as it can’t get to water. The red turtle dies but then reappears as a woman. He falls in love with her. They have a child and the film follows these characters till the man’s death. He remains on the island with no further desire to leave- yet his own child eventually leaves with three other turtles to see the world.

This movie shows struggles, difficulties, happy moments, ups and downs and many more emotions. Although there is no talking in this movie the pictures still give a magnificent understanding of the characters and their emotions, so little can still be enough.

The design wasn’t like an anime even thought it was made by an animation company that made another well-known anime film Totoro (Studio Ghibli). The imagery was focused on nature, while telling the story. There are very few close up shots.

This movie was sad as when the tsunami hit they experienced difficulty and a sad moment of their home land being lost and got severe injuries. At one moment I thought the father was going to die.

I think this movie is recommended for people from 9+ and for people that have patience. Some people around me thought it moved too slowly,but I was happy with the pace. This is a dramatic poetic arthouse film with a bit of romance for all ages over 9.

My rating is 4.5 out of  5

SING STREET | Sydney Film Festival

a movie review by Salvador (12)

Sing Street is a marvellous movie about a boy, Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo)

and his life and family in Dublin, Ireland. His family are having problems, which means a new life and new school for him where he makes enemies and friends.  

He also meets an interesting and mysterious girl, Raphina (Lucy Boynton)

hanging outside his school. He tells her he is in a band to impress and get to know her.  But the trouble is he doesn't have a band so he teams up with his new friend Darren (Ben Carolan) to get a band together so they can make a music clip and get Raphina to be in it.

My dad is from Dublin and was the same age as the main character (15) at the time of the movie date (1985) so he remembered a lot of things from the movie, the songs, the clothes and the places they filmed in.

I thought it was one of the best movies of the year.  The movie had brilliant songs and hilarious jokes.  If I had to rate it out of 10 I would give it 9/10 because it was that good.

After the movie two of the actors Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Mark McKenna

were there to talk about the movie and answer the audiences questions.  The main actor liked the Beatles when he was growing up and Mark McKenna who plays Eamon does not like rabbits in real life (you will understand when you watch the movie).

I would recommend it to everyone that likes good songs and who has a sense of humour.

Editors note for parents: 

Sing Street is rated: M. There are some scenes with bullying, which may be upsetting to younger viewers. Themes within the movie include bullying, divorce and abuse. IMDB provides a parents guide.

A film guide is also available here https://www.intofilm.org/resources/363