OUR MISSION
The Providence Children’s Film Festival (PCFF) seeks films that inspire, delight, educate, and connect a diverse community of youth and families by curating, presenting, and exploring the best of independent and international cinema.

Fifteen years ago a group of Providence residents from varied creative backgrounds recognized that this capital city -- home to wide range of diverse cultural communities, top-notch universities and several celebrated youth arts organizations -- had all the ingredients for a children's film festival to rival what they were seeing in New York, Seattle, Chicago, and elsewhere. Feeling confident that others in the area would also want to see independent, thought-provoking films for young minds and introduce their children to the craft of filmmaking, they set about creating PCFF. A scrappy, four-day, all-volunteer run festival at first, PCFF has evolved into a multi-national, ten-day event that puts Providence in the ranks of one of the top children's film festivals in North America!

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Providence Children’s Film Festival enhances and energizes an already vibrant local arts and cultural community and has become one of the most highly anticipated family events of the year. The Festival takes place in February at multiple venues in and around Providence. For ten days there are screenings, filmmaking workshops, drop-in activities along with pre- and post-film presentations (which we call “Reel Connections”). During the Festival, PCFF screens an average of 12 feature-length films (including a classic film title) along with over 200 short films, including live-action, documentary, animation and experimental films made by filmmakers from around the world.

YOUTH FILMMAKER SHOWCASE (YFS)
A very popular part of our annual festival is our Youth Filmmaker Showcase (YFS). Started nine years ago we invited youths (17 and under) and youth filmmaking groups/clubs to submit their latest work with film. These shows have become a celebration of artistic talents of youth from here in New England and especially many young filmmakers from around the world. After each screening these artists are provided an opportunity to share their vision to our audiences and discuss their inspiration and production challenges. Due to the wide range of ages and the diverse film styles there are no “awards” given in this category. We hope a young filmmaker would consider it an honor should their film be accepted by a very rigorous jurying of their peers and programmers.

CRITERIA
The PCFF selection committee seeks films with content that speaks positively to children, teens and families from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Please consider submitting if you have created work that can speak to all ages, including children and teens. We seek films that are entertaining and/or challenging to young minds with serious, true-to-life topics and narratives that may span a range of emotions. The film need not have a "story-book" ending to find a place in our festival. PCFF welcomes foreign films with subtitles, documentaries, live action, animation and experimental films that may inspire our viewers to think about the world in a new way.

SELECTION
The Artistic Director will make selections along with the Festival Film Selection jury composed of educators, filmmakers, parents and children. PCFF takes pride in bringing children into the selection process; as a member of the PCFF Jury, youth have a voice from beginning to end, taking part in final film selections, festival programming, and award distributions. PCFF will email all entrants no later than January 25, 2024 on whether their films have been selected for the festival.

SPECIAL EVENTS
In addition to our Opening Night Party and final Awards Presentation Event, PCFF hosts a Filmmaker Soiree’ during the festival. No juice boxes or Goldfish crackers here! The Soiree’ is a low-key and relaxing get together with our star filmmakers and our festival devotee's. In between bites you may meet some filmmakers of all ages that have films in this year's festival, or share a drink with one of our invited Reel Connection speakers, or have a laugh with the people who helped create and support this year's festival.

AWARDS

On the last weekend of the festival, thirteen awards will be announced.

Audience Choice Awards for:
Best Feature Live-Action Film
Best Feature Animated Film
Best Feature Documentary Film
Best Short Live-Action Film
Best Short Animated Film
Best Short Documentary Film

Special Jury Awards for:
Best Feature Film
Best Feature Documentary
Best Short Live-Action Film
Best Short Animated Film
Global Awareness Short Film Award
Children’s Hospital Jury Award
Emerging Filmmaker Award

Rules & Terms
The individual or entity submitting this film (1) warrants that it holds all necessary rights for the submission of this film for exhibition in the Providence Children's Film Festival ("PCFF") and for use in related promotional and educational events prior to the festival and up to 24 months thereafter and (2) shall indemnify and hold harmless PCFF from and against any and all claims, costs, suits, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees, and court costs) by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, royalties, publicity and/or screening related to the film. In addition, the individual or entity understands that PCFF will handle the film, film media and any related materials with a maximum of care but shall not be held liable for any damage or loss during the shipping, preview or screening of the same.
Final acceptance decisions are made by the Artistic Director with assistance from the festival film jury. These decisions are final and are not subject to appeal. Submission fees are non-refundable.

Final film format decisions of accepted films are solely decided by the Artistic Director. We will make every effort to show on the best format, with the best resolution and sound quality but there are no guarantees. Exhibition formats and level of screening quality may change based on equipment availability and changes of venue.
The Providence Children’s Film Festival is granted the right to utilize and excerpt from any film or image submitted and accepted for exhibition at the festival, on the PCFF website, and for promotional purposes.

All accepted short films are to be shown on a digital file. Our preferred format is Quicktime: h.264 codec, 1920x1080 frame size at 30fps. Other options may be used but will remain in their native format.

PCFF shall use best efforts to ensure correct title and credits are listed on festival materials but shall not be held liable for inadvertent errors and omissions. PCFF reserves the right to adjust dates and times of film screenings/festival and shall not be responsible for delays or cancellations due to equipment failure, shipping delays, inclement weather, the condition of the files delivered, or for any reason outside the control of PCFF.

PCFF reserves the right to decide all questions not specifically provided for herein.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • This is the festival that all children’s film festivals should be modeled on, imo. Some highlights: The communication from the festival director Eric Bilodeau was personal instead of generic; the festival was scheduled during the February school break which ensured that hundreds of parents and kids would attend throughout the week and bookending weekends; the opening night celebration was held at the grand RISD Fleet Library with delicious hors d’oeuvres and desserts by RISD Caters; the screening venues were spacious, comfortable, and diverse; the films were thoughtfully chosen and varied. I applaud everyone involved for putting so much time and thought into making this such an outstanding festival.

    March 2024
  • Shaun Kadlec

    A fantastic festival. They were very supportive to us as filmmakers, and communications were clear, kind and quick. They are also very engaged with the local community in Providence, and they found wonderful local non-profit partners to join our screening and Q&A. A truly great festival experience!

    March 2023
  • Eva Colmers

    Found the Providence Children's Festival highly professional and I loved their selection of films and talks. I was not there in person to enjoy their hospitality and networking opportunities but from what I can tell, this festival really cares about high quality film programming for kids and communication with them was wonderful. Hope to be there next time with a new kids film. Thank you for including our DILLY DIGGER!

    March 2023
  • Masha Udovicic

    We had very nice experience with the festival. Hope to see you next year!

    March 2023
  • Martha Grant

    This festival was at the top of my hoping to get in list. I was thrilled to be accepted. It was especially thoughtful of the organizers to share comments and reactions from the jury with me- it was lovely to hear what they thought! I was unable to attend this year but I hope to make it to in the future- Providence is a great place to visit. I will definitely share future films here and recommend to other filmmakers.

    March 2023