The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival is the largest and longest running event of its kind in the USA. Annually, it hosts approximately 26 000 visitors. The winners are selected by a professional jury (filmmakers, critics, educators), a children’s jury and a youth jury (ages 15-18). Into the Blue won not only the Professional Jury 1st Prize but also the Youth Jury 2nd Prize. The children’s jury selected Galina Miklínova’s Oddsockeaters as winner of the Animated Feature 1st Prize. The film is a Czech-Slovak-Croatian co-production. For a full list of winners please follow this link.

This year’s candidates for an ‘Oscar’ nomination in the short film category also include three other Croatian films: The Slovenian-Croatian co-production Nighthawk, by Špela Čadež, qualified for a nomination thanks to winning the Grand Prix at Animafest Zagreb, while the Canadian-Croatian co-production Hedgehog’s Home by Eva Cvijanović, and Magda Mozarka by Bojana Momirović also became candidates, fulfilling the Academy’s criteria of being publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles for at least seven consecutive days.

Cover photo: Into the Blue