A still photo of the movie "Cinderella Moon." [Photo: NYICFF]

Two Chinese films have been selected for the New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) this year. While "Monkey King" is an animation that is the restoration of the original work from 1951-1954, "Cinderella Moon", co-produced by cinematographer Richard Bowen, is a fairytale based on a Chinese tale "Ye Xian" dated back from 768 A.D. The film was shot in Yunnan Province.

" 'Cinderella Moon' is the very first version of Cinderella, long before the German version and the Disney version were made…'Monkey King' is really beautiful and is a great story. I've been wanting to show the film for so many years, but the only print has been destroyed. I was very happy to find out that the work has been restored," said Eric Beckman, Founder and Director of New York International Children's Film Festival.

Many films the Festival has shown have gone on to become Oscar nominated or Oscar winners. Over the past four years, the Festival has had 12 to 14 Oscar nominated films. "The Dreams of Jinsha", a Chinese animated film, was one of them. It was an Oscar nominated film last year and was accepted by the Academy Awards as one of the contenders, along with DreamWorks' "Shrek Forever After" and Disney-Pixar's "Toy Story 3".The animation, which cost US11 million to made, has been well-received by global audience. The Hangzhou government's official site said "a fully seated exhibition center in New York welcomed the cartoon" and praised the work which "has been the best achievement for domestic cartoons".

When Beckman first started the Festival 15 years ago, he received feedback from people saying "children only like happy endings", or "children would never read subtitles, or "children don't want to watch movies from different countries". But Beckman wasn't convinced. He was right.

"The message I want to get across is that people should really think about how movies for children can be," he said.

When it comes to movies, grown-ups often get to choose from a wide variety of genres. There are actions, romantics, comedies, movies from different countries, small independent movies, horrors, or arts. But Beckman sees that the film market for children is very limited and narrow. He believes that children should also be exposed to different kinds of films apart from animation.

"The metaphor I like to use is that sometimes if you go to a restaurant, you have a menu for adults, and then you also have one for children – the little tiny children's menu, in which the children can choose to have chicken fingers and pizza. And I would say let's throw away the children's menu and let them eat from the main menu," he said.

Children cannot be taken too lightly, and they are the intelligent, open-minded, and complicated audience who are interested in seeing far more types of movies than people believe, he added.

Films in the Festival are therefore not limited to animation. There are also documentaries, actions, short movies, and featured movies. They are all new works submitted from around the world.

Beckman hopes that this Festival could provide young people and families a wonderful, exciting eye-opening horizon, which allows them to watch films from six different continents. "Since American audience don't get to travel that much, it's nice for them to travel the world by sitting in the theatre seats and watch."

Now in its 15th year, Children's Film Festival is the largest one for kids and teens in the United States. It stages "groundbreaking and thought-provoking" movies for ages 3-18 in nine theatres in New York City.

"In addition to being an enjoyable entertainment, it is also enriching because audience can get to see films from China, Argentina, Ireland, or France," Beckman said.

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