90-Second Newbery Film Festival!

Many students often ask me if Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is going to be made into a movie. Unfortunately, Hollywood has not called (or at least not yet, I can dream--right?) but thanks to a very cool project called the 90-second Newbery Film Festival, it could be a possibility!

But it's up to you. The 90-second Newbery Film Festival will be made up of reader-made videos that compresses the story of a Newbery award-winning book into 90 seconds or less. Selected films will be shown with much hoopla and excitement at an event at main branch of New York Public Library. Think of it as a kid-film Oscars.

Well, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a Newbery book. That means someone (hint hint) could make it into a 90-second movie for this film festival. And if someone (hint hint) does happen to find Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as an inspiration for a 90-second movie, I'll send you a free print from my etsy shop!

Not that you have to use Where the Mountain Meets the Moon(sniff), any Newbery book can serve as your 90-second movie inspiration. Here are the rules according to the creator of the contest, James Kennedy:

1. Your video should be 90 seconds or less. (Okay, okay: if it’s three minutes long but absolute genius, we’ll bend the rules for you. But let’s try to keep them short.)

2. Your video has to be about a Newbery award-winning (or Newbery honor-winning) book. Here’s a list of all the winners.

3. Just to be clear: we’re not looking for book trailers. We’re looking for full-on dramatizations, with mostly child actors, that manage to tell the entire story of a book in an ridiculously short amount of time.

4. Your video must condense the plot of the book in 90 seconds or less. Again, exceptions will be made for something really ingeniously bonkers, but it has to be related to a Newbery winning book.

5. Upload your videos to YouTube or Vimeo or whatever and send the link* at kennedyjames [at] gmail [dot] com. Make the subject line be “90 SECOND NEWBERY” and please tell me your name, age, where you’re from, and whatever other comments you’d like to include, including whether you’d like me to link to your personal site. You can give an alias if you want; I understand privacy concerns.

6. Sending the link to me grants me (James Kennedy) the right to post it on my blog and to other websites where I sometimes post content (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and to share at public readings, school visits—and hopefully the “90-Second Newbery” Film Festival at the New York Public Library in the Fall of 2011.

7. Deadline is September 15, 2011.

(*if you do happen to use Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as your movie inspiration, please send me the link too!)

Just to note, I am pretty sure this is a film festival for students (ages 0-18) though, of course, teachers, librarians and parents are encouraged to help and guide (I think this great idea for a project!). Here is a 90-second film of A Wrinkle in Time as an example and inspiration:



Hope to see your 90-second film soon!!