CALL FOR ENTRIES: Children's film festival seeks entries (TAIWAN)

Creators of dramas, documentaries, animation and television programs for children can participate.

The Taiwan International Children's Film Festival (TICFF) is seeking entries for its competition. TICFF aims to screen quality productions for children under 12, while furthering children's multicultural education and media literary.

The categories include dramatic feature or short, documentary, animation and television program. The length of drama, documentary and television program must be 10 to 95 minutes; animations can be 1 to 95 minutes.

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ARTICLES / RESEARCH: Parents want children to watch ‘quality’ TV: study (TAIWAN)

A study from the National Communications Commission (NCC) shows that while most parents in Taiwan would like their children to watch more news and educational TV programs, school-age children prefer watching television dramas featuring popular teen idols.

The nation's media regulator last year commissioned a research institute to examine the influence of TV programs and commercials on the behavior of children aged four to 12. The results, which were released earlier this month, showed that more than 60 percent of children aged 10 to 12 said TV influenced them more than anything else.

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NEWS: Boost children’s programs: NCC (TAIWAN)

Terrestrial TV stations could soon be required to broadcast at least two or three hours of children's programming daily, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.

The media regulator unveiled its guidelines on communications policy for children and teenagers ahead of National Children's Day on Monday. In the guidelines, the commission proposed requiring TV channel operators to produce quality programs of various types for children and teenagers.

It also proposed setting clear regulations on the minimum number of hours available to these programs, as well as the specific times to broadcast them. The commission listed this as one of the policy goals it aims to accomplish within two to three years.

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NEWS / EVENTS: Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival to open with Morakot documentary

The Taiwan International Children's Film Festival 2010, organized under the theme of "Listening and Understanding," will open with a typhoon Morakot documentary on April 1 in Taipei, the local media reported Sunday.

Opening film "Bye-Bye Morakot" records how children faced serious trauma; their interpretation of problems encountered; and how they recovered from the trauma. Documentaries of South Asia Tsunami and Katrina Hurricane occurred in the US are also covered in this genre.

Marking its fourth anniversary, Taiwan International Children's Film Festival this year is organized jointly by the Public Television Service (PTS) and Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation, aiming to promote children's understanding of different cultures through an overall of 130 films from 30 nations.

full article - festival website