Festival de Cine Infantil Churumbela (9)

Festival start: 05 December 2025      Festival end: 07 December 2025

CALL FOR ENTRIES

From July 8th 2025 to September 8th 2025.

Do you remember the first film you saw on the big screen when you were a child?

For thousands of Mexican children in vulnerable situations this question has no answer. This is why Churumbela Children's Film Festival was created, inviting all Mexican and Spanish-speaking children to experience cinema in an inclusive, completely playful and entertaining environment.

The 9th Churumbela Children's Film Festival will take place in a hybrid format; where some of the activities, workshops and talks with industry professionals will occur online and some others onsite including film screenings in Mexico City and Merida City, Yucatan. It brings film culture to children and their families, specially those who are in any kind of disadvantage due to economic situation, or physical disability. The Festival enhance film as an expression tool, sense of self identity and cultural enrichment through an accesible and inclusive program.

"Colourful Mosaic" is the thematic axis of this edition, as an invitation for children to discover how the use of colour evokes feelings and sensations by building different atmospheres and unravel messages in every scene. Just like an actual mosaic art piece it is made by a variety of visual narrative elements , exploring film from a creative and sensorial perspective full of symbolisms.

This 2025 Churumbela Children's Film Festival will take place in Mexico City in October and Yucatán December Friday 5 - Sunday 7, with the support of the General Office of Cultural Promotion and Festivals of the Ministry of Culture, PROFEST 2025, The Mexican TV Cultural Channel, Canal 22 and other entities and the Mexican private initiative as well as nonprofit organizations.

The 9th Churumbela Children's Film Festival promotes creativity, dialogue, the seventh art and artistic expression as tools for social transformation, and all activities are completely free of charge.

Thanks to all the support we have received, it is possible to bring cinema to all children free of charge so that they can immerse themselves in the wonderful world of filmmaking.

EXHIBITION OF SHORT AND FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

★Laurel Churumbela 2025.
★Participation Diploma.
★Dissemination in our social networks.
★Acknowledgement by Children's Jury.
★Mention in our "Film encounters" in case of being selected for that activity.
★Mention in our children's film debate spaces.

YOUNG-FILMMAKERS- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

★Laurel Churumbela 2025.
★Participation Diploma.
★Dissemination on our social media.
★Award ceremony to Mexican short films by Children jury.
★Mention in our children's film debate spaces.
★Invitations to participate in Churumbela Talks about Film making on the Festival's Youtube Channel.

Thank you for your support!

The 9th Edition of CHURUMBELA CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL will open its 1st call for entries on 2 June 2024 and will close on 11 August 2025.

Aimed at Mexican or foreign filmmakers and producers who have made feature films, short films and cineminutes aimed at children and family audiences; as well as Mexican and/or foreign mini-filmmakers. The material must be in Spanish or in a different language with Spanish subtitles.

The objective of the call is to gather, disseminate and exhibit national and international films free of charge, aimed at Spanish-speaking children, as well as children in vulnerable situations, where they have the opportunity to access valuable content that awakens emotions and empathy in them, that can lead to positive learning and that can bring culture through film, which will be decisive for their identity and social inclusion, improving their reality by contributing something positive to society.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION
The curatorship will be divided into short and feature films in the following categories:

●FICTION
●ANIMATION
●DOCUMENTARY
●MINICINEMA

The Festival categories may vary depending on the content of the projects entered.

MINI-FILMMAKERS - NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
Works aimed at children's audiences made by girls and boys between 5 and 12 years old, either independently or in a film workshop with an open theme and with a duration from 1 min or longer.

Categories:
●FICTION
●ANIMATION
●DOCUMENTARY

REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
The registration of projects will be carried out through the FestHome platform:
https://festhome.com/festival/churumbela-cinema-movil for international short and feature films; for national films, they can be sent to the following e-mail address: churumbelaprograoficial@gmail.com.

The final exhibition formats will be exclusively in downloadable digital file, H264 compression, 4K (4096 x 2160) and/or in H264, (3840 x 2160) or (1920 x 1080). In the case of Minifilmmakers, it can be received in an HD format (1920 x 1080) such as .mov or .mp4.

The short and feature films entered can be filmed with professional filming equipment or mobile devices.

The material should preferably be spoken in Spanish, otherwise a subtitled version must be submitted if the work is in a language other than Spanish.

The production date of the works can be between 2023 and 2025, as long as they have not been selected by our festival in previous editions.

The works can be submitted by authorized directors, producers and/or distributors. Mini-festivals must be submitted with the support of their tutors.

The registration of the works is completely free of charge for nationals.

To complement the information of each work it is important to send an e-mail to churumbelaprograoficial@gmail.com with the following information:


• 6 Stills of the work in .jpg format (300 dpi).

• Film poster in .jpg format (300 dpi)

• Director's photograph in .jpg format (300 dpi)

• Technical sheet (You can download the .doc format from our website)

• Trailer of the film for distribution and promotion. If you have such material, edit 30 seconds of the short film and send it to us.

The deadline for submission of the exhibition material is September 8th 2025, 23:59 hrs.

The official selection will be published by September 15th 2025 through the Festival's social media and the official website http://churumbelafest.com

Subsequently, participants selected will be notified via email.

The films that integrate the 2025 CHURUMBELA Children's Film Festival Selection will be included in different thematic areas for a better appreciation of children audience.

Some of the platforms where the Churumbela selection can be screened are:

Our website https://www.churumbelafest.com/
Churumbela social media
Festhome TV
Different venues in the states of Mexico City and Yucatan.
Community and cultural venues in Mexico City and Yucatan. Children Foster Home's among other.

The material will remain on our website and FESTHOME only during the scheduled exhibition dates of the festival, from 06 to 07 December 2025. Subsequently, they will be exhibited free of charge only on specific dates throughout the year and only when first notified to the company of the Filmmaker.

A letter of authorization will be sent prior to the exhibition, in the event of failure to respond, you will not be able to participate in the festival.

The festival may make use of the selected material through its social networks and website on special dates, other exhibitions or children's cycles (Children's Day, Earth Day, etc.) on a temporary basis to continue promoting the works free of charge and using film as a tool for social transformation.

The festival is non-profit, and the aim is to bring their stories to many children to inspire, reflect, empathize, raise awareness and build self-confidence.

To find out about the program of short films, films, activities and workshops that you will be able to see in person and online, please visit our official website: https://www.churumbelafest.com

CONTACT:
Email: festivalchurumbela@gmail.com
Phone numbers: 55 51586814, 55 36602163
Website: www.churumbelafest.com