SCHOOL TOUR
MARCH 2025 | IN-PERSON & ONLINE
FEATURE FILM
FLOW (Grades 4-12)
Cat is a solitary animal, but when its home is devastated by a great flood he is forced to find refuge on a boat populated by various species. The animals, including a secretary bird, a capybara, a lemur, and a dog, have to team up despite their differences in search for dry land, and while navigating the dangers along the way.
Golden Globe and Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Feature!
Content advisories: Some frightening scenes, climate change/disaster
Themes: Working together in the face of adversity, compassion, gratitude, and perseverance
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Country: Latvia, Belgium, France
Runtime: 85 minutes
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
This film provides a form of visual mentor text, which is valuable in both English and French language arts lessons. It will also spark discussions about the elements of writing for film, such as the development of characters, setting, plot, and resolution, as the framework of analysis. Students can deepen their comprehension of the film by first retelling the events, and then applying their skill by posing questions and making inferences. Most importantly, students can explore the film content as conveying a message, using critical thinking, to allow them to discover the role of inclusivity as important to survival when faced with powerful adversity
GRADE RECOMMENDATIONS
Films featured in the AIFF Kids School Tour have been approved and assigned grade range recommendations through the assistance of the AIFF Kids Teachers Advisory Committee (TAC), a committee of educators who viewed preselected material for the program. We understand children and youth respond in varied ways and recognize the final choices belong to teachers, parents and guardians. Where necessary, we’ve noted content warnings for mature subject matter, coarse language, nudity and/or violence on our website.
ACTIVITY PLANS
Alongside this guide, we provide curriculum tools. These resources are a tool for getting the most out of the AIFF Kids program and include pre-screening and post-screening activities that complement, among others, Media Studies, Language Arts, Social Studies, Visual Arts and Cultural Industries modules.
PLEASE NOTE: While the AIFF Kids program is available free of charge, schools attending in-person events are responsible (logistically and financially) for their own transport to and from the cinema in their community.
SHORTS PROGRAMME 1
Grades P-3 | Total Running Time: 67 minutes
BAKING WITH BORIS
Every morning, Boris the village baker makes a fresh batch of crusty bread and pastries for all his neighbours until… Achoo! He can’t stop sneezing. He has become allergic to flour. How will he manage to keep baking for everyone in the village?
Themes: Community, problem-solving, sharing
Director: Maša Avramović
Country: France
Runtime: 8 minutes
RICE BALL
Told through animation, a young Taiwanese schoolkid is afraid to bring her lunch to school out of the fear of being ridiculed for being different.
Themes: friendship, acceptance, sharing of cultures
Director: Kristina Pringle 宇欣
Country: UK
Runtime: 2 minutes
TWO ONE TWO
Two One Two, by animation filmmaker Shira Avni, combines shimmering clay on glass animation with personal archives in this deeply intimate, experimental animated documentary love letter to motherhood, parenting on the spectrum, and two headed monsters everywhere.
Themes: Parent and child bond
Director: Shira Avni
Country: Canada
Runtime: 4 minutes
CAPYBARA
Hunting season has begun. A family of capybaras seek refuge in a chicken coop, but the hens don't trust them. The curiosity of the youngest members of the families will create a union with unexpected consequences…
Content Advisories: Image of gun with farmer
Themes: Community
Director: Alfredo Soderguit
Country: France, Uruguay, Chili
Runtime: 11 minutes
WILD BUMBLEBEES
Experience the macro world of wild bumblebees from a bug's eye perspective as bumblebees forage for pollen, seek refuge from the rain in apple blossoms, and curl up in dandelions for afternoon naps in the forest.
Themes: Local ecology, biodiversity, conservation
Director: Rose Schoonhoven
Country: Canada
Runtime: 6 minutes
BEKA & NICO
Beka and her dog, Nico, set out to visit family across Canada. They travel province by province, taking in each unique landscape and experiencing something special to that particular part of this vast, grand country.
Themes: Science, nature, family, Canadian ecology
Director: Rebeka Herron
Country: Canada
Runtime: 5 minutes
THE UNSEEN
Timo is busy making his nest, when he hears a reply to his mating call. Desperate to find his mate, he takes flight, only to find the source of the reply is not what he had hoped.
Content advisories: Climate change and extinction
Themes: Biodiversity, conservation
Director: Francesco Guarini
Country: United Kingdom, Spain
Runtime: 3 minutes
NUBE
After witnessing an old dark stormy cloud painfully rain and die in sorrow, Noma, a puffy white cloud realizes that Mixtli, her daughter, a dark stormy cloud, is in danger of raining prematurely.
Themes: Independence, selflessness
Director: Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera Estrada, Christian Arredondo Narvaez
Country: Mexico, France, Hungary
Runtime: 7 minutes
FILANTE
Every night, Paulette observes the same shooting star in the sky. She makes her deepest wish: to find her mysteriously missing pet rat. The days go by, but the animal doesn't return. Paulette wants to understand what's wrong with her star.
Themes: friendship, bravery, problem-solving
Director: Marion Jamault
Country: France
Runtime: 8 minutes
HOOFS ON SKATES
In a winter wonderland two friends are having a blast ice-skating on a frozen lake when suddenly a strange and unfamiliar world cracks open underneath them: now they must learn how to deal with the otherness, not letting the fear rule.
Themes: Friendship, working together, overcoming fear
Director: Ignas Meilūnas
Country: Lithuania
Runtime: 12 minutes
SHORTS PROGRAMME 2
Grades 4-6 | Total Running Time: 81.5 minutes
THE QUEEN’S FLOWERS
A magical take on a true story, The Queenʻs Flowers is an animated short adventure for kids that follows Emma, a Native Hawaiian girl in 1915 Honolulu, as she makes a special gift for the last monarch of Hawai`i, Queen Lili`uokalani.
Content advisories: Indigenous boarding school depiction, religious and war imagery
Themes: Indigenous perspective, compassion
Director: Ciara Leinaʻala Lacy
Country: USA
Runtime: 11 minutes
WELIMA’Q
Welima'q is a poetic doc, witnessing a sweetgrass landscape on the shores of Mi'kma'ki. Between the salt water and forest line, a family weaves themselves within these grasses. It is the sweet scent that draws them in, and ultimately goes home with them. Still, this earth breathes and bends, continuing on after us.
Recommended discussion on Mi'kmaw traditions and the importance and use of sweet grass prior to viewing.
Themes: Indigenous perspective, knowledge sharing, community
Director: shalan joudry
Country: Canada
Runtime: 5 minutes
ON A SUNDAY AT ELEVEN
A young Black ballerina performs her Sunday rituals, while facing the pressure to perform whiteness. An unapologetic celebration of the powerful, ancestral bond embedded in Black women.
Themes: African diaspora perspective, identity, pride, community
Director: Alicia K. Harris
Country: Canada
Runtime: 9 minutes
THE UNSEEN
Timo is busy making his nest, when he hears a reply to his mating call. Desperate to find his mate, he takes flight, only to find the source of the reply is not what he had hoped.
Content advisories: Climate change and extinction
Themes: Biodiversity, conservation
Director: Francesco Guarini
Country: United Kingdom, Spain
Runtime: 3 minutes
WILD BUMBLEBEES
Experience the macro world of wild bumblebees from a bug's eye perspective as bumblebees forage for pollen, seek refuge from the rain in apple blossoms, and curl up in dandelions for afternoon naps in the forest.
Themes: Local ecology, biodiversity, conservation
Director: Rose Schoonhoven
Country: Canada
Runtime: 6 minutes
FILANTE
Every night, Paulette observes the same shooting star in the sky. She makes her deepest wish: to find her mysteriously missing pet rat. The days go by, but the animal doesn't return. Paulette wants to understand what's wrong with her star.
Themes: friendship, bravery, problem-solving
Director: Marion Jamault
Country: France
Runtime: 8 minutes
THE NIGHT BOOTS
A child leaves home in the middle of the night into the undergrowth, boots on his feet. A little creature takes him into the heart of the forest to meet the nocturnal inhabitants that live there.
Themes: Independence, imagination, compassion
Director: Pierre-Luc Granjon
Country: France
Runtime: 13 minutes
TERRY
When an unexpected phone call from his father Terry interrupts Ben’s quiet night in with his mother, we watch him struggle to make both of his parents happy, a feat that he can never truly achieve.
Themes: Family, divorce
Director: Dylan Duff
Country: Canada
Runtime: 8 minutes
47
Inspired by a true story, 47 is Café Joyeux’s completely hand-made, animated stop-motion film created not just for, but by the Down syndrome community.
Content advisories: Moments of discrimination
Themes: Disabilities awareness, empowerment, resilience
Director: Paulo Garcia
Country: Canada
Runtime: 6 minutes
HOOFS ON SKATES
In a winter wonderland two friends are having a blast ice-skating on a frozen lake when suddenly a strange and unfamiliar world cracks open underneath them: now they must learn how to deal with the otherness, not letting the fear rule.
Themes: Friendship, working together, overcoming fear
Director: Ignas Meilūnas
Country: Lithuania
Runtime: 12 minutes
SHORTS PROGRAMME 3
Grades 10-12 | Total Running Time: 94 minutes
A SUMMER’S END POEM
Shortly before the end of the summer holidays, a country boy spends his savings on his dream of a city hairstyle – with surprising results. A story about bidding farewell to childhood and the poetic end of a summer.
Themes: Identity, independence
Director: Lam Can-zhao
Country: People’s Republic of China, Switzerland, Malaysia
Runtime: 15 minutes
THE QUEEN’S FLOWERS
A magical take on a true story, The Queenʻs Flowers is an animated short adventure for kids that follows Emma, a Native Hawaiian girl in 1915 Honolulu, as she makes a special gift for the last monarch of Hawai`i, Queen Lili`uokalani.
Content advisories: Indigenous boarding school depiction, religious and war imagery
Themes: Indigenous perspective, compassion
Director: Ciara Leinaʻala Lacy
Country: USA
Runtime: 11 minutes
WELIMA’Q
Welima'q is a poetic doc, witnessing a sweetgrass landscape on the shores of Mi'kma'ki. Between the salt water and forest line, a family weaves themselves within these grasses. It is the sweet scent that draws them in, and ultimately goes home with them. Still, this earth breathes and bends, continuing on after us.
Recommended discussion on Mi'kmaw traditions and the importance and use of sweet grass prior to viewing.
Themes: Indigenous perspective, knowledge sharing, community
Director: shalan joudry
Country: Canada
Runtime: 5 minutes
PERMIT GARDEN
A dreamlike parable about immigration, Permit Garden follows a nameless child as they toil to gain exit from the Garden. Drawing from personal experience, the film sheds light on the difficulties of navigating administrative obstacles within the Canadian immigration system, as well as the resilience and hope of individuals
Themes: Immigrant perspective
Director: Jenny Yujia Shi 施雨迦
Country: Canada
Runtime: 5 minutes
JULIAN AND THE WIND
Arthur and Julian are roommates at an all-boys boarding school. Arthur is in love with Julian. Julian doesn’t have the time of day for Arthur. When Julian starts sleepwalking –– and the weather starts stirring –– it creates a strange, intimate space in their lives.
Content advisories: Queer content, cis-male upper body nudity, instance of smoking
Themes: Gender and sexuality, belonging
Director: Connor Jessup
Country: Canada
Runtime: 15 minutes
ONE OF THOSE FAMILIES
A deeply personal animated short film that brings together the exquisite hand-painted illustrations of Mi’kmaw artist Pauline Young, the animation expertise of Struan Sutherland, and the poignant poetry of Rebecca Thomas.
Themes: Indigenous perspective, resilience
Director: Stephanie Joline
Country: Canada
Runtime: 3 minutes
CHOOKAS
A girl, a goat, and a shopping trolley travel around Australia looking for the chicken lady.
Themes: Independence, adventure
Director: Rachel Mackey
Country: Australia
Runtime: 13 minutes
HAIRY LEGS
Questioning why she “has to” shave her hairy legs launches one 13-year-old girl on a journey of self-discovery.
Content advisories: Themes of sexuality, conformity, scenes with blood
Themes: Identity, feminism, community
Director: Andrea Dorfman
Country: Canada
Runtime: 17 minutes
ON A SUNDAY AT ELEVEN
A young Black ballerina performs her Sunday rituals, while facing the pressure to perform whiteness. An unapologetic celebration of the powerful, ancestral bond embedded in Black women.
Themes: African diaspora perspective, identity, pride, community
Director: Alicia K. Harris
Country: Canada
Runtime: 9 minutes