Coastline Children’s Film Festival held its 9th annual festival this past March. 9 years ago, the idea of Coastline was inspired by the 8 ½ foundation that expands the horizon of films available for young kids and “welcomes children into the wider world of movies.” Creators of the film festival used the idea to make an opportunity for children to create their own films. As a part of their mission statement, Coastline wishes to bring quality independent films for children and young adults. President and curator of Coastline Leslie Sullivan also adds that “educational opportunities are central to its mission,” and festival participants “have the opportunity to learn about the history of the medium,” and the craft of filmmaking throughout the festival.

The annual film festival occurred over the duration of 10 days, with an opening night costume party, different performances, filmmakers awards, and ended off with an stop-motion animation challenge. Both Sullivan and Thomas Allen, designer and manager of coastline film festival since 2005, share that their favorite event this past year was watching silent films accompanied by Dr. Larry Schanker on piano. They also especially enjoyed the new opening night costume party and watching foreign films that are “outside the mainstream but considered classics.”

This year’s Young Filmmakers competition included 20 short films by young directors from the ages of 7-18. It is completely free to enter, although small donations are suggested. Of those 20, 6 short films were submitted by students here at Adams in the IB film class. Students worked in small production groups to create their own independent films. On Friday March 15, screenings of the films were held in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Kids, students, and parents were all welcome to join in watching the films. Free popcorn and drinks were provided by sponsors of the event. Awards were presented to the top 3 films chosen by judges, along with awards for audience favorite and honorable mentions.

Coastline is always making changes and improvements to the festival to make things more fun and entertaining for kids each year. In the future, Sullivan plans on creating a Youth Jury where kids would “view and critique potential films for the upcoming year.” Along with this, Allen explains that the festival will work to be even more organized and effective because “the entry form will be available online only,” making is easier for filmmakers to enter. Also, they plan on using helpful resources in the upcoming years to help in the submission process to film festivals for free.

All the Adams entries have been posted to the video section of our website. All other entries can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ9rApCJipXfrErr13g6xhg