Belmont World Film’s 14th Annual Family Festival offers nearly four full days of some of the world’s best films, in English or their native language with subtitles, for children age 3-12 and their families. Many are being screened in the US or on the East Coast for the first time. It might be your only time to see them in New England!
This year’s festival, Where Books Come Alive, features films based mostly on children’s books: from American favorites, including Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, to Johanna Spyri’s Swiss classic, Heidi. There are films about new siblings, friendship in South Korea, Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, Little League Baseball in Uganda, three 12 year-old boys from Brooklyn with a $1.8 million record deal, and so much more!
Aardman’s Creative Director Merlin Crossingham (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep) is also coming from the UK to talk and sign autographs after a screening of the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on opening night and to lead two model making workshops (Shaun the Sheep and Gromit) on Saturday, January 14th (there only a few spots left, so hurry).
Schedule and venues:
Friday, January 13
7:00-9:00 PM Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit + talk and autograph signing with Wallace & Gromit Creative Director Merlin Crossingham. Regent Theater, Arlington
Saturday, January 14
10:00-11:30 AM Aardman Model Making Workshop I: Shaun the Sheep. Belmont Media Center, Belmont
10:30-11:30 AM What’s New from Weston Woods Studios. Studio Cinema, Belmont
12:00-1:00 PM Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Make Way for Ducklings and Other Caldecott Medal Winners. Studio Cinema, Belmont
1:30-2:45 PM Molly Monster with Pat & Mat’s The Vacuum Cleaner. Studio Cinema, Belmont
2:00-3:30 PM Aardman Model Making Workshop II: Gromit. Belmont Media Center, Belmont
3:15-4:45 PM The World of Us. Studio Cinema, Belmont
Sunday, January 15
10:30-11:30 AM Laugh Out Loud with Mo Willems. Studio Cinema, Belmont
12:00-1:15 PM Mr. Frog. Studio Cinema, Belmont
2:00-3:30 PM Fortune Favors the Brave. Regent Theater, Arlington
4:00-5:15 PM Opposite Field + talk with Ugandan Little League Coach Evan Petty. Regent Theater, Arlington
Monday, January 16: Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
10:30-11:30 AM Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brattle Theater, Cambridge
11:45 AM-1:40 PM Heidi. Brattle Theater, Cambridge
2:00-3:45 PM Little Mountain Boy. Brattle Theater, Cambridge
4:00-5:30 PM Breaking a Monster. Brattle Theater, Cambridge