The program for the fifth edition of IndieJunior Allianz is finished. We will again propose a set of new stories and many other debates committed to the daily lives of families, children and young people. In total, more than 50 films will be screened which, this year, incorporate notions of freedom, ecology, family and art, in a program that equally weighs the fun and educational character of cinema. Because of the recently announced general confinement, the fifth IndieJunior Allianz will not be able to take place on the scheduled dates (26th to 31st January), and its postponement to new dates to be announced soon is being agreed. The online program for schools is still confirmed for now, one of the news already announced earlier this year. Completing the work started in November with the Eu Programo Um Cinema Festival initiative (through which students from school groups in Porto are part of the festival’s programming team), the online platform created by the festival will allow the organisation of cinema sessions in schools. The teachers interested in bringing cinema for their schools have to make a registration through the link indiejunior.com/escolasporto showing their interest in the IndieJunior Allianz at School session.

Proposing a world full of ideas and dreams projected on the big screen, this year, the Families program integrates an international competition composed of long and short films of recent production, the continuation of lap cinema that proposes new scenography and sensory experience for children below of the three years, a cine-concert with the participation of the violist José Valente and a special program in partnership with Maus Hábitos in Porto. The program is also completed with a debate on urgent environmental issues (There is no Planet B), which will count on the participation of elements responsible for the organisation of the recent Student Climate Strike, Extincion Rebelion and Zero Waste Portugal. The 2021 edition of IndieJunior Allianz will also bring back to the big screen the classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, a choice of Manuela Azevedo, lead singer of Clã, for the section My First Film.

Featured in the line-up of films, Alice Júnior, a Brazilian feature film that follows the story of Alice’s first kiss, a young trans youtuber, while she is forced to move to a school where old prejudices still prevail. Also in the feature films, a story about friendship and the struggle for freedom in Fritzi – A Revolutionary Tale, an animated film that portrays the times of divided Germany. Strong themes still in the 2021 programming, the gender issues highlighted in RAPAZESRAPARIGASMIX, a documentary about an intersex child; death and the way we deal with it in Sara Kolster’s To The Moon and Back, and the impacts of capitalism and society in which we live on the balance of the planet in July Cat’s Normal.