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animated Alden children from The Boxcar Children
The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Outreach College presents the 12th Annual KIDS FIRST! Film Festival on 4 consecutive Sundays, June 24 and July 1, 8, and 15 at the UH Mānoa Art Auditorium.

Film screenings

The free screenings are comprised of award-winning international shorts; new episodes of the television series, Molang; the interactive, animated and live-action film, Shimajiro and the Rainbow Oasis; and a special closing event with writer/director Dan Chuba presenting his new animated feature, The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island. The publisher of the children’s classic, The Boxcar Children, will provide book sets as door prizes.

animated lemur on an airship
Two Balloons
one woman cutting a cake and one sitting at the table
The Bake Shop Ghost
  • Sunday, June 24
    Adorbs!, Ages 3+
    Films: Molang, Shimajiro and the Rainbow Oasis
  • Sunday, July 1
    Ages 5+, 12 shorts under 12 minutes
    Films: Cicada, Dino Dana–Mega Tooth, Lemon and Elderflower, Someone Good Will Find You, Outside, Mogu and Perol, Rag Dolls, Sunny and Gerd in Spring Cleaning, CORKY, Daisy’s Oracle, Freestyle, Iron Hands
  • Sunday, July 8
    Imagine That!, Ages 8+
    Films: Erin, Owen, and the Loch Nest Monster; The Door; Gypsy Tales/The Fiery Red Snake; Elena and the Shadows; Dreamweaver; Two Balloons; Blows with the Wind; Trigga; Mom Got Eaten by a Demon Spider
  • Sunday, July 15
    Closing Event!, Ages 6+
    The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island
    Introduction and Q&A with writer/director Dan Chuba in person! Book prizes provided by publisher Albert Whitman and Company

This year’s festival provides quality entertainment for children and youth from 3 years of age and up. Free parking is available on campus; follow balloons to the Art Building Auditorium. Doors open at 2:30 p.m.; program starts at 3 p.m. with door prizes followed by the films.

A project of the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media, KIDS FIRST! films are free of gratuitous violence; race, gender, or religious bias; and condescension towards children.

The UH KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is supported in part by the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, with additional support from Alaska Airlines.

For complete information, please visit KIDS FIRST or call the Outreach College at (808) 956-9883.

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