SDkids

It didn't feel like so long ago, but it has been longer than two years without having the significant San Diego International Kids’ Film Festival onsite event since the last one in 2019. This year, SDIKFF finally gets back to it’s home base in San Diego County California where the beautiful coast line welcomes filmmakers and guests from all over the world with an Halloween ambience. With over 150+ selections under categories including kids-made film, youth-made film, feature film, short film, animation, MV, and participants of the screenplay contest, the 2022 SDIKFF become one of the best platforms and stages for all the rising stars that gonna shine to the world.

Every year during the spring, summer, and autumn, the sister festivals under Maeya Culture Exchange Group – Universe Multicultural Film Festival, San Diego International Kids’ Film Festival, and Epic ACG Fest join hands seasonally to encourage all creators, artists, and filmmakers to the next level of their success. Last year as the first attempt of onsite public event after the pandemic, three sister festivals held together in Rancho Palos Verdes for the first time in history and achieved a huge success. This year, due to the local COVID-19 update, the SDIKFF postponed its August event and collaborated with the well-known Epic ACG Fest from Silicon Valley. Epic ACG Fest was originally created by Maeya Culture Exchange Group . It’s a festival and stage for animation, comics, and games design. Having two festivals together enlarged the stage of both festivals and participants would have a better chance to make new friends, learn about each other’s work, and possibly collaborate in the future.

This year we have many alumni participants from both SDIKFF and Epic ACG Fest. Start with  San Diego locals Bryn Wright, who is only ten years old but already an experienced animator,  this is her second year to be with us. With all the recognition Bryn received from the jurists, she’s a promising rising star that will shine in the professional world soon. She’s a promising, rising star that will shine in the professional world soon. Another spotlight for our alumni participants goes to the producer for Zabezoo, Eugene Lobachev,  who also participated in the festivals for the second time. Eugene created this animation series called Zabezoo and brought their latest episode to the audience. The third spotlight of our festival alumni gonna introduce Mr.David Dibble to the world. Mr.Dibble joined the SDIKFF many years ago, and came back this time with his documentary short Rocks 4 Sale, a true story based on his life experience as a train conductor in Colorado. Mr.Dibble’s  film carries not a story from Colorado, but also introduced tradition passed generation by generation. Their return demonstrated how the kids,filmmakers, and animators treated both festivals in a valuable standard. SDIKFF would like to offer the stage to all film loves, all kids and youth who have a film dream, SDIKFF has been the first cheerleader for their potentials and wishes them all the best with the event every year.

This year we also have many international participants come in from overseas, many of them are this year’s award winners which made their journey cross the mountains and seas become unforgettable lifetime memories. Starting with Mr. Perry de Loor, who is an animator from Belgium. His animation, Triskilion, impressed the jury committee and every audience who watched its screening at the SDIKFF. For a stop motion animation which was only ten minutes long, it takes Perry years to get the whole production ready, and we are lucky enough to enjoy it with all the film lovers at our festival this year. Another international filmmaker attended our festival was Mr.Lars Smekal from Germany. As a well-known filmmaker in Germany, Lars brought international media exposure of his film Memories Of A Forgotten Childhood after he received the Best Drama Short Film this year. All the way from Korea, Mr. Wonjin Kim attended this year’s SDIKFF with his film BLIND and joined the audience with an after screening Q&A. Even with a little of language barrier, Mr.Kim still tried his best to answer all the questions from the audience, and shared precious stories of making this film. Last but not least, our loyal attendee from Czech Republic, Tereza Penkova, who joined us since day one and experienced all the panels, screenings, and mixers during the three day of festival. Tereza came all the way to San Diego with her official selection screenplay The Circus Must Go On, which turned out to be the winner of Best Foreign Screenplay of the Screenplay Contest.

Shining stars were not only in the participants, among the jurists, panelists, and award presenter, we also have Oscar-winning filmmaker Douglas Smith, filmmaker Anna Chi, international film producer Lino Li, and Hollywood Kungfu Star Ewart Chin. International beauty queen Tammie Starr, etc ,  A very special local theater artists group” Patio Playhouse” has been our main support for the “Screenplay showcase live show”,    Each and every of them has been the family and friends of the SDIKFF since day one, and the festival would not be as successful as today without their love and support for years.

Join this family of filmmakers and professionals from all over the world, see you all next year at the 2023 San Diego International Kids Film Festival!