The Young Horizons International Film Festival

ended

The Young Horizons International Film Festival is Poland’s largest festival for young audiences (over 65,000 admissions, about 160 films and over 300 international guests in 2022). For 9 years, the event was called Kids Kino IFF, and in 2023, it changed its name in a rebranding process (more about this in the “Relevance” part of this application). Our mission is to disseminate and support the development of quality films as well as to educate children, guardians, teachers, and industry members. Our activities are based on the 360-degree scheme, where YH IFF is a focal point and brand which supports our other year-long projects. We help to create high-quality content for kids: from the initial stage of development (YH Lab, YH Docs) through the search for co-producers, funding, sales agents, or broadcasters (YH Industry), to the moment when the film is ready to be shown to the audience (at the festival – YH IFF, in distribution – YH Distribution, and as part of educational activities – YH Education). Our values, including environmental protection, gender balance, tolerance, and openness to diversity, are clearly represented in the programme of the festival, the structure of our association, and our daily activities. To promote and support ambitious and diverse films for young audiences, we use all the available new technologies, starting from running our projects also online, on our VOD platform. As renowned Polish children’s film experts, we work in well-organised conditions with professional managers. The YH Industry event that accompanies the festival is the first and largest industry forum in Central and Eastern Europe focused on films for young audiences. The particular elements of the YH brand are all interrelated and coherent. This is not only a festival event that lasts a couple of days but an event that links our year-long activities aiming at enhancing the circulation, promotion, distribution of European audiovisual works nationally and internationally.