The 2025 edition of the New York International Children’s Film Festival (nyicff.org) has come to a close, announcing a slew of animated shorts and features as prize winners across its Audience Award, Grand Prize and Oscar-qualifying Jury Award competitions.
Audience Awards
Determined by the votes of audience members within specific age ranges
- Ages 3+ – Tiddler, Andy Martin & Alex Bain; United Kingdom
- Ages 6+ – Capybaras, Alfredo Soderguit; Chile, France, Uruguay
- Ages 8+ – The Drifting Guitar, Sophie Roze; France, Switzerland
- Ages 10+ – Fish River Anthology, Veera Lamminpää; Finland
- Ages 12+ – Quota; Job, Joris & Marieke; Netherlands
- Grownups Award (ages 18)+ – América, Javier Arias-Stella; Peru
Jury Awards
- Animated Short – Sparrows, Rémi Duran; Belgium, France
- A young monk, distracted by a sparrow, goes on the journey of his lifetime.
- Live-Action Short – América, Javier Arias-Stella; Peru
Unstoppable Kids Prize
Co-presented with Shine Global, this award recognizes a film that highlights the resilience and strength of children in the face of adversity.
- Savages – Claude Barras; France, Switzerland
- From the director of NYICFF 2017’s My Life as a Zucchini, comes yet another deeply moving stop-motion story of a found family. Keria lives on the edge of Borneo’s tropical rainforest with her father, where aggressive deforestation has become the backdrop of their daily life. When an orangutan is killed by loggers, they take him under their care. Then another visitor comes to upend Keria’s life: her Penan cousin, Selaï, who is temporarily leaving behind hunting and gathering for reading and writing. At school she tries to cast him off, embarrassed by his not-so-smooth transition to modern life. But her father reminds her that “family is sacred,” so when he slinks off into the forest, she follows after him. It isn’t long before they’re lost, and Selaï only knows the way back to his indigenous home. Soon Keria learns the ways of her people and reconnects with her relatives. When the loggers threaten her new home, she is determined not to let them destroy it. The forest, her aunt explains, is like their mother —and family is sacred, after all.
Grand Prizes
Determined by audiences of all ages, with extra weight given to the votes of audiences under the age of 18.
- Animated Feature – Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window, Shinnosuke Yakuwa; Japan
- “Sit down! Stop talking. Pay attention!” School is hard enough, but little Totto-Chan just can’t seem to be still. Inquisitive by nature, she’s constantly inspired by the world around her—and in 1940s Japan, the wonders of Western modernization bring new and exciting ways to traditional Japanese life. When her behavior proves to be too distracting to the rest of the class (according to her teachers, at least), her parents make it their mission to find the right place for her. Totto-Chan is no ordinary child, and her new school takes place in no ordinary classroom but in an old street car. Her classmates are equally extraordinary, each with their own abilities and ways of thinking. With a schoolmaster that affirms rather than tamps down their joyous curiosity, Totto-Chan and her classmates flourish in an environment filled with acceptance and freedom of expression. The coming changes to Japan will make adjusting to new life all the more challenging, but Totto-Chan, charming, chaotic, sometimes troublemaking, and often irrepressible, will be just fine as long as she can be herself. Based on the best-selling memoir of famous Japanese television personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Totto-Chan is a tender reminder the things that make us different are the very things that make us special.
- Live-Action Feature – Salta, Olga Osorio; Spain
- Short Film – The Drifting Guitar, Sophie Roze; France, Switzerland
- A tie-selling weasel roams the countryside and decides to take a chance in the forest thanks to the unconditional help of a hedgehog.
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