HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: The 17th International Children‘s Film Festival (ICFF), offering a mix of movies for the tiny tots, kicked off at Hyderabad yesterday,

Organised jointly by the Children‘s Film Society of India (CFSI) and the Andhra Pradesh government, the festival was inaugurated by the state Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

In his inaugural speech, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting CM Jatua said children are the future in a country and have to be taken care of.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister M Kiran Kumar Reddy said this was the ninth ICFF in this city of the Char Minar. He said in a country which has 54 per cent below 25 years of age and 41 per cent below 18 years of age, it is important to make cinema that appeal to the young. He said the goals should be clear since children today were competing in a global village. He said films should make children think, even as they get entertained.

Reiterating that the CFSI had been allotted ten acres of land for a children film complex and promising that it would be ready by the next festival, he said Andhra Pradesh is the only state where children’s films were tax-free and a subsidy of Rs 3 million is given for makers of children’s films. This is because children’s films needed support because of competition from television and the internet.

"The festival will have special features for short films, films made by children, age-wise screening of films, workshops and an open form to deliberate on the movies," CFSI chairperson Nandita Das said.

She said the curators have taken painstaking efforts to select the rest of the films from around the world for screening during the festival.

The festival, which will conclude on 20 November, will see the screening of 152 children‘s films from 37 countries.

Also present were CFSI Chief Executive Officer Sushovan Banerjee, and B Venkateshan of the Andhra Pradesh State Film, Television and Theatre Development Corporation. Also present were Mr Uday Kumar Varma and Mr D P Reddy, Secretary and Joint Secretary respectively in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The programme, which concluded with the screening of ‘Gattu’ by Rajan Khosa, also had performances by over a hundred children, the percussion legend Sivamani who was accompanied by a child prodigy, and the award-winning Prince Dance Troupe.