Conference "LIfe as in the Movies. (Contemporary) Developments in Children's Film"

Foto: private
When: Wed, 22.10.2025 6:00 PM until Sat, 25.10.2025 3:00 PM
Where: Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Flügelbau West, 20146 HAmburg, ESA West 221
This event takes place in German, with the exception of the Friday keynote by Noel Brown (Liverpool)
From October 22 to 25, 2025, the conference "LIfe as in the Movies. (Contemporary) Developments in Children's Film" will take place on the campus of the University of Hamburg and at the Abaton cinema.
Audiovisual narratives about childhood and adolescence and for children and young people are booming: teen series are omnipresent in streaming services, children's films are shown with audiences in cinemas, and coming-of-age films are competing for major film awards. German-speaking research has also been examining aspects of children's and youth films and children's and youth series in recent years. However, when looking at the diverse themes, motifs, trends, and effects of children's and youth films—which in the following always refers to children's and youth series—there is an overall lack of research. This applies to children's and youth media research, which tends to primarily examine literary, aural, and visual formats, but also to German-speaking film and media studies, which pays little attention to children's and youth films—in contrast, for example, to the broader Anglo-American research.
Based on the importance of children's and youth films for current film and The conference aims to provide a broad framework for discussion and contribute to initiating a systematic discourse on children's and youth films. The focus will be on current children's and youth films, while also considering film history as a framework – e.g., in the form of distinctions or further developments, motifs and their constellational stagings, (intertextual and transcultural) references, and musical or aural structures. Children's and youth films are characterized, among other things, by different narrative and representational forms; therefore, a differentiation will be made, which will also be reflected in the conference structure.
Organization: Christian Exner (German Children's and Youth Film Center), Prof. Dr. Tobias Kurwinkel (University of Hamburg), Dr. Frank Münschke (University of Wuppertal), Carina Schlichting (German Children's and Youth Film Center), Dr. Philipp Schmerheim (University of Hamburg)