Atlanta Children's Film Festival
October 9 - 18, 2026

Kids Video Connection (KVC) is excited to celebrate 19 years of service to children and their families through the Atlanta Children's Film Festival.

The Atlanta Children's Film Festival promotes positive, educational, and entertaining children's and family-oriented films. The next festival is scheduled October 9 – 18, 2026. This educational and fun film festival is two weeks of eye-opening and exciting activities which include film screenings, media literacy and video production workshops for children, teens and independent producers.

The Atlanta Children's Film Festival kicks-off on October 9, 2026. Check on KVC's website for more details about all the workshops and screenings August 2026.

Currently, we are only accepting films 45 minutes and under. We will not judge films that are over 45 minutes.

Many thanks for funding and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Georgia Council for the Arts, Emory University Department of Film and Media, South Arts, the Tyler Perry Foundation, DeKalb Entertainment Commission and LifeLink of Georgia.

This festival is produced and presented by KVC, a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational media arts organization that specializes in teaching youth media literacy, video production and communication skills. Our mission is to use video production as a teaching tool to educate and empower today's youth with media literacy, communication and critical thinking skills that will help them become independent thinkers and positive content creators. KVC Inspires Youth to Think-Dream-Create!

Since we started the festival, it has been a great success! Through this annual summer festival, we have reached over 10,000 youth. Our audience consists of children of diverse ethnic groups. We are reaching and teaching more children each year. In 2008, KVC was awarded DeKalb County Arts Visionary Award for starting the festival and creating an innovative art programs to teach children.

KVC will partner with iPitch.tv to help connect independent children producers to Studio Executive and Hollywood Producers to pitch their creative work. To find out more go to iPitch.tv Also, independent producers (adults only) will get the following prizes:
Winner(s) – 6 months subscription to iPitch.tv

To sustain the growth and future of the festival, we are pleased to offer sponsorship opportunities. Our intent is to identify sponsors who align with our core values and develop a partnership that ensures engagement with your target consumer base.

Kids Video Connection can help your business with:

• Brand recognition
• Community outreach
• Tax credit
• Lead generation
• Becoming an advocate for media education and cyber safety.

If you want to reach more families and children, be one of the Awesome sponsors of the Atlanta Children's Film Festival. For more information, please contact the film festival director, Alesia Johnson, at (404) 993-5696 or by email ajohnson@kidsvideoconnection.org.

Awards & Prizes

Up to 6 category winners will be awarded a cash prize, free entry to a future festival, award laurel, and a 1 year subscription to iPitch.tv.

Rules & Terms

We are seeking positive educational and entertaining programs for children, teens and family-oriented programs . Also, we are seeking shorts produced by students (children and teens). NO ENTRIES EXCEEDING 45 MINUTES PLEASE.

Make sure to include the following information:
1. Film Title
2. Film Duration
3. Name of Director
4. Name of Writer/Producer
5. Name of student's school (if applicable)
6. Month & Year of completion
25 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Ali Stiefel

    This was an amazing experience. I did not get to attend in person, but I enjoyed watching people follow our film's page as a result of this festival and winning an award through this festival was such an amazing honor. I would definitely submit again if the opportunity arose.

    January 2026
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  • Brittney Brackett

    Screening my documentary at The Atlanta Children's Film Festival was incredible! Our film was the very last on the docket, but the students were heavily engaged in our Q&A and shared their thoughts on mental health, bullying and other mental health concerns. I also sold some of our nonprofit's newest ancillary products, our Grounded Conversation Cards, to parents seeking to better interact with their kids daily with creative, affirmation-driven hands-on activities. Thanks ACFF Team for welcoming us and providing a safe environment where kids can share what's on their hearts and reach for the stars!

    https://www.outstandingyouthawards.com/product-page/grounded-healthwork-conversation-deck

    October 2025
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  • Robert Hicks

    I am glad I made the trek from Portland, OR to the Atlanta Children's Film Festival. The staff was warm and gracious and gave a lovely opening reception for us filmmakers, which included dinner. The screening was at a nice venue in a large tiered hall at Emory University. The audience response to my film "There Is A Moose" was enthusiastic and worth the trip alone. The organizers arranged a valuable zoom meeting with industry professionals that was educational ind interesting. Had a great experience, and Decatur is a lovely village to spend the weekend. Thank you Alesia, Frank, Raissa and everybody!

    October 2025
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  • Alfred Hernandez

    I was excited to have my video Fruit Crate City and Me be part of the Atlanta Children's Film Festival. It was also exciting for my niece who acted in and narrated the video. Good to see this kind of important programing toward young people.

    October 2025
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  • Bianca O'Neill

    A wondeful festival. We are so honoured that Yellow Daisy Butterfly was part of it this year. We dearly wish we could have attended in person as seemed like a lovely event all round.

    October 2025
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