2023 Children’s Film Festival Seattle @ Northwest Film Forum

Friday, February 3rd – Sunday, February 12th

This film festival, now in its 18th year, is a cornucopia of delights. The opening night film is Missing Link, a charming stop-motion animation feature about a Sasquatch who travels to Tibet in search of his relatives. The closing night offering is The Magic Flute, an imaginative updating of Mozart’s classic opera. In between are over 150 films from around the world encompassing an incredibly diverse range of perspectives (and mostly presented in shorts packages). 

The tip of the iceberg: The Coder, about a teenage girl who designed an app to help kids keep in touch with incarcerated parents; a young boy who must leave his porpoise friend behind in Yangtze; growing up as an intersex child in the Netherlands in Girlsboysmix; Peter the Beetle, about a bug with dreams of stardom; a girl’s search for real live fairy folk in Dream Again; the experiences of Israeli biracial kids in BrownWhite. Also recommended: The Young Rebels shorts package, which features films by young filmmakers.

And the fest isn’t just about watching films. There are also several pay-what-you-can workshops, including hands-on experiences in drawing, shadow puppetry, making films without a camera, and a “fantasy camp” showcase led by Majestic Adventures. You can attend the festival either in-person or virtually, with individual tickets and passes available (individual virtual tickets are also pay-what-you can).