Zebra
One day the zebra ran into a tree.
Festival Year: 2018
¡Viva Kid Flicks!
NYICFF is proud to offer a new Spanish-language program of animated, documentary, and live action films full of warmth, wit, and the cultural richness of our friends and neighbors to the south: Mexico. Drawn from the Festival’s annual Friends and Neighbors program spotlighting a different country every year, this lineup is co-curated with Mexico’s Morelia International Film Festival. All films are in Spanish with English subtitles or no dialogue, perfect for Spanish learners, speakers, and all seekers of fun, artistic, and enriching cultural experiences, ages 7+.
Kid Flicks One
Kid Flicks One gives a warm welcome to all budding cinephiles with this lively international lineup of fun. Kick off the festivities with good hygiene and great dubstep in Party Mouth (USA), then let your hair—or, er fur—down and hang loose in I Want to Live in the Zoo (Russia). And, even if you get into a tangle, there will be someone to catch and cheer you on with the charming If You Fall (Canada).
Sonaria
Follow two ever-changing creatures as they flow from one life-form to another on a vivid journey of sound and light.
Rain or Shine
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, there’s a spring in everybody’s step. It’s a perfect day until Ella steps outside.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR Experience
Step through Newt Scamander’s case and explore the spectacular world of Fantastic Beasts in a breathtaking cinematic virtual reality experience.
Rouff
Any good artist will tell you that characters sometimes take on a life of their own, as resourceful Rouff demonstrates.
Tintico’s Afternoons
Under the beautiful Quebrada cliff in Acapulco, a group of mosquitoes crazy for tropical music desperately tries to bring happiness back into a rumba director’s life.
Rain in the Eyes
In this fantastical story set amidst hides tough and tender, seven-year-old Sofía recalls the day she fractured her arm while being chased through the forest.
Piñata Love
Mexican country craft meets-cute with NYC urban grit in this tale of a near-perfect mâche.
The Piñata King
Over 50 years ago, on the outskirts of Mexico City, a family began making and selling piñatas to the local community. Now the whole town takes part in the tradition, in this colorful documentary demonstrating the art and quirks of the craft.
Mateo and the Cinema
A young boy gets help from his family committed to seeing his artistic talents gloriously unfold.
Lucy vs. the Limits of Voice
Lucy wonders if each person is born with a fixed number of words to expend in their lifetime and if that could be the reason why her grandpa stopped talking.
A Hole
A little girl longs for a playmate in the garden. Her efforts go unnoticed—until they finally take root.
Far from Home
Risa is a Japanese teenager on a visit to Mexico. When she ends up lost in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, a local boy tries to help her find her way.
Elena and the Shadows
Elena’s old neighborhood is empty and lonely until Félix enters her orbit and shows her how to access other universes.
Creativity Does Not Recognize Walls
Art knows no boundaries, as this lovely animation commissioned by the Pixelatl Festival seeks to show us.
Bzzz
A little girl recognizes that buzz and hum are essential to all life in this cross-pollinating tale.
Two Snails Set Off
A star-studded French voice cast joins in on this witty walk, or rather creep, to the dark side, which takes as its starting point a classic poem by Jacques Prévert.
Totems
A lumberjack is working in the forest when a tree falls on him and traps him. In his plight, his inner animal is awakened…
Shock Therapy
Spiders, snakes, monsters…You name it, Jim’s afraid of it. One day, he bravely decides to try a kind of shock therapy—facing your fears directly—by inviting the whole load of them into his home.
Notes on Monstropedia
A monsterologist in Medieval Europe crafts an intricate, illuminated bestiary. The result is a comprehensive monster archive, searchable by artful turns of phrase and set to the slightly creepy if classical strains of a harpsichord.
Eternal Hunting Grounds
Two children play on an island. Their favorite game: to search under stones, on the beach, in the mud, and in the fields, hunting for creatures that have given up the ghost.
Ellee
What’s a monster—eerie, creepy, not a “normal” creature? Ellee challenges us to rethink difference and test our lenses.
The Dinner Party
A mysterious host invites guests to a dinner party. However, his strange friends have even stranger eating habits…
Dentures of Death
When Tommy’s parents go out, he’s forced to spend a nervous night in the company of his very old great-uncle. With Tommy losing his first tooth and Great Uncle losing his last, all signs point to a harrowing conclusion in this comically dark tale of youthful misunderstanding.
The Burden
Upbeat, downbeat, and quirky beyond belief, this unique stop-motion short is filled with the unexpected, including catchy post-apocalyptic tap dancing, telemarketing, and auto-tune numbers that rattle your norm to the core.
Scrap Dolls
On the east side of Detroit, an 11-year-old boy discovers the transformative power of art over loss when he happens upon a self-fashioned conjurer of abandoned objects.
Princess
Behind Ole’s harsh exterior is a kid who misses his mom and feels misfit. Fortunately, his schoolmate Davie is a lot tougher than she looks, and she uses all her strength to push back against his bullying to model another way for him.
Note: contains strong language and verbal/physical bullying
The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm
Mixing documentary footage and hand-painted animation, this gentle yet powerful family story centers on Elliott’s connection to his beloved great-grandfather Jack, an Auschwitz survivor. Jack relates his important history and forges an indelible, tender bond between generations.