Photo: Joanne Oldenbeuving (source: Cinekid)

For incoming director Joanne Oldenbeuving, Cinekid is even more impressive, complex and “positively overwhelming” than she had imagined it to be, even though she has been attending as a visitor for years, together with her two daughters. But at its heart, she argues, there remains a simple core principle, to entertain kids and to inspire them. “Every year we say, ‘hey, we are Cinekid, and we are here for every child,”’ she tells SEE NL.

Oldenbeuving is no stranger to working with youngsters. Before joining Cinekid, she was MD of the Amsterdam Youth Theater School. Prior to that she was, among other things, director of VondelCS, the media and culture house of broadcaster AVROTROS, and head of the BNNVARA Academy.

For anyone who needs reminding, Cinekid is the world’s leading audiovisual event for children and youth, taking place this year October 11-26. The Cinekid for Professionals program runs from October 21 to 24.

While Cinekid is based in Amsterdam, it reaches audiences in more than 40 locations throughout the Netherlands. What’s more, from a child’s perspective, the audiovisual extravaganza offers the lot - from documentaries and animations to comedy, fantasy, drama and series. Plus, there’s the interactive and immersive MediaLab, packed with hands-on experiences for kids (and very curious adults).

Cinekid is also a place which helps develop young minds. It’s educational and it promotes good values, Oldenbeuving reasons.

“A lot will start with empathy, with knowing more about the lives of other kids and the world around them. I think it's essential for children to see and be inspired by more and more different stories.”

This is evidenced by this year’s opening film, King of the Wanderers** by Janne Schmidt, which addresses, in the most delightfully nuanced and engaging way, the topics of separation and having to deal with a parent with severe mental health problems.

“The film shows the sympathy and the empathy you need to show for people around you - and nobody is judging in the film,” says Oldenbeuving, who argues that adult audiences could benefit from observing the world through such a kids-oriented lens as Schmidt’s.

The Cinekid for Professionals programme is, historically, the place where the global industry gathers to buy and sell content, pitch projects, explore investment opportunities, discuss key issues shaping the children’s media landscape, and discover emerging talent and valuable professional prospects. This year is no different, with a packed Forum discussion program, a Junior Co-production market with 22 new projects to be pitched to potential stakeholders, and the online Screening Club of new available titles. But in 2025, the programme will be presented without Creative Europe support. In its application, Cinekid met all the criteria and gained the required points, but there wasn’t enough in the overall CE funding pot, Oldenbeuving tells SEE NL. Which means that she and her staff will be working extra hard over the next two years both to raise finances and also to decide on core areas of priority in order to maintain the level of excellence that professional attendees have become used to.

Having two teenage daughters offers Oldenbeuving a high level of insight into the very specific needs of the festival audience. She tells SEE NL how, last year, together with one of her daughters, she watched the documentary Sweeties**, by Natalie Bruijns & Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden, about three 13-year-old Dutch girls who holiday in a campsite in the south of France, their heads full of dreams about love and romance.

“It was very nice,” the Cinekid boss remembers. “I think we talked for an hour afterwards about loving boys, what she should do, or not do, how she would react to a specific situation. But also, she was saying, ‘I didn't know that documentaries were that fun. I thought it was going to be boring!’”

Oldenbeuving further articulates what would constitute a satisfying end to her first Cinekid in charge. Yes, she wants the audience to go home rosy-faced at the end of every screening, and she wants full auditoriums, and she is determined to make sure that kids are once more offered “the tools of empathy” so as to better understand the world and their fellow occupants, youth or otherwise. “It’s also important to instil in them an interest in cinema as well, as these are the audiences of the future,” she adds.

Crucially, she is looking forward to experiencing the festival and its professional programme first-hand from a management perspective, so as to able meet the complex challenges of the coming years. “There are very good reasons why Cinekid has become the best festival for young audiences, and I want it to stay that way for a long time to come,” she signs off.

Find out more about Cinekid here.

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*film supported by the Netherlands Film Fund
**supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and Netherlands Production Incentive