In many parts of the world, children’s films still struggle to gain recognition and are too often dismissed as programs for their educational aspects rather than their artistic or commercial power. Sharjah International Airport The Children’s Film Festival, which recently concluded its 12th edition (October 6-12), makes a convincing rebuttal. The festival has evolved from a regional showcase to a gathering place for a growing international movement that sees children not just as viewers, but as participants, critics, and creators.
Through a week of screenings, workshops, and cross-cultural exchanges, SIFF reaffirmed that storytelling for young people is not a niche, but a laboratory for empathy, creativity, and imagination.
Here are five takeaways from this year’s festival.
Junior Juror: When Children Become Critics
SIFF’s junior jurors continue to embody the festival’s founding philosophy: that film education begins in conversation, not just in the classroom. For many participants, the experience was transformative.
Yukti Sharma, 14, called the role “a privilege to see how movies really work, from the pacing to the angles to the emotions.” Fellow juror Howrah Yasser said the film taught him that “young people can change the way a story is told,” while Amal Abdulaziz Arabdouli said he now watches films for “how the symbolism, the rhythm, and the music can change the mood.”
Their comments reflect the ways in which the show reconfigures the audience as writers. By encouraging children to deliberate, debate, and choose winners, SIFF teaches media literacy as an inherently creative discipline and cultivates audiences who interpret film critically rather than passively.
It’s a form of empowerment, more than just entertainment, it’s about trusting the taste buds of children.
Global Connect: Children’s films find their voice
One of the most impressive through lines at this year’s SIFF was shown not on a screen, but in a panel room similar to the World Children’s and Youth Film Conference. There, festival directors from around the world compared notes on their successes and challenges in sustaining children’s films.
Firdose Bulbulia, founder of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival from Johannesburg, told his colleagues: “Children are the most important investment any society can make. Their minds are open, curious and full of possibilities, and they are not yet tired of cynicism.” “Too often this sector is overlooked by the industry as a whole because there is no promise of immediate commercial returns, but the real value lies in shaping how young audiences see the world and each other,” she points out. Through initiatives such as the African Charter on Children’s Broadcasting, Bulbulia has spent decades transforming the belief that children’s media is a civil right, not charity or education, into policy.
Larm Lee, director of Busan International Airport in South Korea, says: The Kids & Youth Film Festival takes a scientific approach. BIKY partners with filmmakers, educators, scientists, and local businesses to study how stories impact empathy and cognitive development. “Children’s films are not a side genre; this is where the future of storytelling begins,” she explained. “When people see the impact, whether it’s a child making a film for the first time or an audience discussion that changes the way adults see the world, it becomes impossible to ignore this field because it’s ‘small.'”
India’s Shruti Rai, director of the Chin India Kids Film Festival, echoes that belief through her Chin Media Literacy Program, which trains schoolchildren to make their own films. Chin was also the first film festival in the world to introduce a pre-school jury in which children between the ages of 3 and 7 evaluate films made for their age group, a bold act of trust that redefines the meaning of ‘youth engagement’. “We are not waiting for adults to make films for children,” Lai emphasized. “We’re teaching kids to build their own movie worlds. We’re planting seeds that take years to grow, but they’re growing.”
Together, these directors and many others attending SIFF will form a new network with common goals and a focus on education, access, and storytelling itself. Sharjah’s role is less to guide and more to bring and connect voices from around the world into the same conversation about what children’s films should look like.
Infrastructure as a vision: Sharjah builds a creative ecosystem
SIFF’s growth is part of a broader creative vision that is taking shape across the Emirate of Sharjah. Sharjah Media City (also known as Shams), a key partner of the festival, has rolled out new production spaces, digital media programs and talent incubators aimed at turning cultural investments into long-term industrial infrastructure. The synergy with SIFF is not structural, but philosophical, although the two organizations operate separately. Both see youth and creativity as long-term infrastructure.
SIFF Director Sheikh Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi describes the festival as a bridge between education and industry, a place where imagination becomes a professional path. With Shams extending the technical side of the equation, Sharjah is effectively creating an ecosystem where storytelling and entrepreneurship are mutually reinforcing.
At a time when “creative economy” has become a global buzzword, Sharjah’s approach feels unusually down-to-earth. The company’s bet on culture is not a branding exercise, but a sustainable public and civic investment.
Investing locally: Emirati voices gain attention
For young Emirati filmmakers who plan to premiere at SIFF, or indeed return to SIFF, that infrastructure won’t come soon enough. Fatima Al-Shamsi described the current moment as one of possibility and vulnerability. “The real support starts when the festival ends,” she explained. “We need labs, grants, and guidance to grow between festivals and connect with patrons who believe in our homegrown scene.”
Her film “Waad” was part of the Arabic short film category and was warmly received by the audience, reminding her that the next stage of Arab cinema begins with the youngest audience. “The kids who attended my screenings weren’t shy,” she recalls. “They gasped, laughed, and scolded the characters. We learned that our stories don’t need outside validation; they can grow based on how children see themselves.”
Ali Fouad, the filmmaker who won top documentary honors for Guardians of the Mountains, believes storytelling is about preservation. “Someone once said to us that we have nothing to show our children about our past,” he recalled. “That sense of responsibility is what drives me.” Fuad wants to bring the Emirati history to a global audience “in its authentic form, not as a stereotype, but as a memory,” said Fuad.
Together, these filmmakers embody Sharjah’s bet that by investing early in local creators, the emirate can build an exportable and deeply rooted film culture.
The digital future: Expanding access through technology
While SIFF’s soul lies in tradition, its gaze is firmly set on the future. This year’s edition featured AI-assisted editing, mobile filmmaking, and digital submission workshops, encouraging participants to write, shoot, and shortcut directly on their devices.
This initiative is more about access than novelty. In areas where film schools remain in short supply, smartphones have become entry-level studios, tools of both creation and inclusion.
Festival director Sheikh Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi called this “a future where every child with a story and a smartphone can become a filmmaker.” That ethos reframes technology as a way to democratize creativity without diluting it.
By embracing mobile and AI tools, SIFF is breaking down barriers rather than following trends, turning digital literacy into artistic agency. In spaces where stories once required organization, the next generation is learning to build their own.
takeout
This year’s SIFF traversed these threads and more, positioning children’s films not as an offshoot of the industry, but as its conscience. In Sharjah, the future of filmmaking looks less like spectacle and more like stewardship. Rather than waiting to inherit the medium, the youngest voices are already beginning to reshape it.
