Since 2007, the festival has worked (and played) with 2-6-year-olds who attend kindergartens and crèches in Geneva. We propose a program of short films from around the world, giving many mini-spectators their first experience of cinema.

In collaboration with the Maison de la créativité, this project is an opportunity to:
– Screen the films in different places and animate them in ways adapted to these places. For instance, kids might transform a room into a cinema, have a snack and make things themselves.
– Take groups of toddlers to visit the Maison de la créativité.

The project was extended to the whole canton in 2016 and around 100 crèches and kindergartens and some 9,000 kid-spectators have participated in Mini Black Movie since then.

Since 2007, screenings are run in primary state schools (in collaboration with École&Culture) and private primary schools (AGEP).

During the 2020 edition, 22 sessions were viewed by a total of around 2,900 pupils.

In 2021, MBM's school program will tackle a very important theme for primary school children: difference.

As soon as they start school, children face differences, be they physical, cultural or social. These may stimulate their curiosity but can also be perceived as threats and lead to teasing, bullying and other forms of discrimination and exclusion. So it is essential that children learn to recognize the unique value of each person and, thanks to what they learn about integration and respect for differences, succeed in accepting each other and in considering diversity as a value and a strength.

During autumn 2020, four programs of short films focusing on familiar and yet surprising venues (beach, forest, town and mountains) were to be screened in central Geneva as well as in seven neighboring communes lacking movie theaters (Bernex, Chêne-Bourg, Grand-Lancy, Meyrin, Onex, Plan-les-Ouates and Vernier). Access to the screenings was free and aimed at giving the children living there a chance to enjoy quality films.
The September and October sessions took place and attracted a large number of spectators; unfortunately, the November and December sessions had to be canceled because of the sanitary situation.

It's the right time to prolong summer by introducing the beach and the sun into our cinemas… An (over-)inventive swimming coach, a group of pint-sized troublemakers surfing on the well-oiled bodies of sun-lovers, a perspiring snowman: all bake on the hot sands of a program that has a wonderful scent of holidays!

• Enco, travesías a vapor – Ignacio Ruiz & Gabriela Salgueiro – Chile
• La Plage – Edward Sturlis – Poland
• The Swimming Lesson – Tatyana Okruzhnova – Russia
• Carrot on the Beach – Pärtel Tall – Estonia
• Cat Lake City – Antje Heyn – Germany

The woodland enchantment of these films lies mainly in how they evoke initiatory quests and celebrate friendship and encounters. Like the famous hedgehog who gets lost in the mist, the baby giraffe on tour who copes with the forest-dwellers'rejection and the greedy little girl who confronts a scary giant, spectators will learn to overcome their fears and prejudices to emerge from the forest a little older and wiser.

• Le Hérisson dans le brouillard – Youri Norstein – Russia
• Mogu & Perol – Tsuneo Goda – Japan
• Tout là-haut – Martina Svojíková – France, Czech Republic
• Cœur fondant – Benoît Chieux – France

The city is not all cement and car horns! It's also a fabulous adventure ground in which to explore, where sharing is an essential value – just look at these neighbors determined to help each other or at this extraordinary exchange between two trams – and where, sometimes, magic operates – as when parent-child roles are reversed or when day and night get involved in a mischievous duel… Be surprised!

• Mr. Night Has a Day Off – Ignas Meilunas – Lithuania
• The Theory of Sunset – Roman Sokolov – Russia
• Le Petit Bonhomme de poche – Ana Chubinidze – France, Georgia, Switzerland
• Flipped – Lamiaa Diab & Hend Esmat – Egypt, United Kingdom
• Two Trams – Svetlana Andrianova – Russia
• Um Dia de Trânsito – Daniel Epsztein Kanczuk – Brazil
• Saturday's Apartment – Jeon Seungbae – South Korea

As they clamber up hills and mountains, the protagonists progress through different stages of their lives: an innocent yet brave hill aspires to grow up, a little kid has to let his grandfather go, a reckless handy monster is threatened by a volcano… Their experiences test their courage and help them rise above their difficulties.

• Some Thing – Elena Walf – Allemagne, Russia
• Awaker – Filip Diviak – Czech Republic
• The Kite – Martin Smatana – Czech Republic
• Cloudy – Zuzana Čupová & Filip Diviak – Czech Republic
• Ray's Great Escape – Jie Weng – China

Since September 2013, Black Movie has run workshops for children attending extracurricular activities (GIAP). In our workshops, they can learn about moving images, make optical games or produce short cartoons.

Since 2018, these workshops have been organized within the City of Geneva's Mobile Workshops framework.

You can view a selection of films from preceding workshops at www.vimeo.com/album/4286651

For the eighth year in a row and after a short training session, a jury of 7-9-year-olds will judge a selection of cartoons and elect one of them for the Children's Prize.
Registration is open to the public here.