INTRODUCTION

The Oulu International Children's and Youth Film festival has established itself as a premier showcase for the high-profile Nordic and international children's and youth cinema. It was founded in 1982 as the first of its kind in Northern Europe. The festival is always held in the middle of November - during the darkest winter days - and it lasts one week.

The competitive children's film section - with maximum 15 films - offers a wide range of genres for children from 3 up to 13.

The Festival's section of films for young people leads us to the world of the coming-of-age and adult audience. The Finnish survey presents new Finnish production and it is a forum for the local professionals. The Kaleidoscope programme brings far-away countries near to the local audience.

Besides the main sections the festival features retrospectives, children's classics, documentaries, etc. The Starboy Prize is given by a Children's Jury, while the ECFA Prize is awarded by an international professional jury.

The festival is a home for seminars on media literacy, various exhibitions and animation and game work-shops for children and teachers.

The organizers intend to show that high-quality children's film production does exist; the duty is to find distributors for them and let them circulate all over the world.

The Oulu International Children's and Youth Film festival gathers 30 000 young and adult viewers from the region and is the most anticipated happening in Oulu before Christmas.