Playing Soon: The Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival

This February welcomes the Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival back for its 11th year and we cannot wait! BAICFF is the hottest family ticket in town to watch diverse, family-friendly films from all around the globe. This year’s event is no exception with two jam-packed days full of flicks and workshops all taking place at Oakland’s amazing Chabot Space and Science Center, and all tailored to mini movie buffs. This is definitely the type of screen time you can get behind. Read on for the full scoop. 

Celebrate

This year’s theme is Imagination Without Borders with festival imagery featuring the work of celebrated Oakland artist, Favianna Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a transnational interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer who was recently featured on Ben & Jerry’s new ice cream flavor, Pecan Resist. The theme will resonate throughout the weekend with panels, workshops and films around the topic.

Watch

Saturday and Sunday are broken down into two sets of films: morning and afternoon. Morning shorts are great for kids of all ages (and attention spans). The afternoon features shorts as well as a feature length film and is recommended for the older set (7 and up for the shorts and 8 and up for the features). 

This year includes a special screening of Pixar’s Academy Award Winning Film, Coco, featuring a presentation on the making of the film with Director Lee Unkrich & Story Supervisor Jason Katz. Kids will also love Chuskit, the gorgeous and inspiring film from India of a young girl with a disability chasing her dream of going to school in her remote Himalayan village.

Visit the 2019 schedule for the full scoop.

Make

For all of your pint-sized auteurs-in-training, the festival offers fun, hands-on workshops in clay puppeting, pixilation and stop motion. After the workshops, students get to premiere their work on the big screen! How cool is that?

Learn more about the workshops here.

Know

A few helpful details: Museum parking is awesomely free. Options for lunch and snacks include the museum café and food trucks. Foodie pro tip: if you pay for a whole day pass, you can always leave for lunch and return if you get your hand stamped. Finally, the price of your admission ticket also includes museum entry, so make sure to take advantage of all the cool exhibits before and after the films.

Find directions to the event and easy parking info here.

The Details

When: Sat.-Sun., Feb. 16-17
Where: Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland, CA
Cost: $22/adult, $14/youth, two-day pass: $32/adult, $20/youth
Note: Tickets can also be purchased at the front desk on the day of the event. All tickets include General Admission to the Chabot Space and Science Center so be sure to explore. (Basically, this is the best kind of whole-day affair!)
Online: baicff.com/tickets

—Mae Respicio and Kate Loweth

All photos courtesy of BAICFF