Sparrows wins the Jury Award at the 2025 New York International Children's Film Festival!
Rémi Durin's short film was awarded by the jury of the 2025 NYICFF
NYICFF was founded in 1997 to promote intelligent, passionate, provocative cinematic works for ages 3-18 and to help define a more compelling film for kids. Since its launch, the event has grown to become the largest festival for children and teens in North America, with a paid audience of over 20,000 attending the most recent event. Since 2000, all screenings have sold out in advance. Each year the festival presents 100 animated, live action and experimental shorts and features from around the world plus gala premieres, retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, workshops, audience voting, and the NYICFF Awards Ceremony. But the festival has become much more than just an annual event; NYICFF now offers year-round film programming, a touring festival, an online festival, and film production workshops for children ages 6-16.
In a Buddhist temple, young monks begin their meditation when the master arrives. One of the children is distracted by a sparrow and follows the bird outside the monastery. Here begins a walk off the beaten paths that goes to the tour of his lifetime. When he has become an old monk, he returns back to the temple where young monks are waiting for him. One of them is distracted by a sparrow.
Sparrows, the new animated short film directed by Rémi Durin, won the Jury Prize in the Animated Short section at the NYICFF this weekend, making it eligible for the 2026 Oscars. The film, produced by La Boîte,... Productions, has already been showcased at several international festivals, including the 2024 European Short Film Festival in Brest and the 2025 Premiers Plans Festival in Angers.
"By relying on just a few carefully chosen colors, the animation draws attention to subtle details and movement, allowing the simplicity of the design to enhance the emotional tone. This restrained approach heightens the emotional weight of each scene, proving that less can indeed be more," said Juror Kay Wilson Stallings on Sparrows
The festival took place in the United States, in New York, from February 28 to March 16, 2025.
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