In its 4th edition, in 2026, the Chica Pelega Film Festival launched the Student category — one of the edition’s five curatorial categories, alongside Catarinense, Contestado, Childhoods on Screen and Contemporary Migrations. Dedicated to films made in workshops and pedagogical activities, inside or outside the school environment, the category brought together, in the session Entre Lições e Escolhas (Between Lessons and Choices), works that transform memory, territory and identity into cinema.

The selection had national and international reach: shorts from schools and projects in various Brazilian cities — from Alvorada (RS) to Rio de Janeiro, passing through Recife, Caruaru, Belo Horizonte, Goiás and Gravataí — shared the screen with productions from Portugal, Spain and even Australia. Documentaries and fictions made by children and young people, many in peripheral contexts, affirmed cinema as a pedagogical tool and a space for listening and collective expression.

The projects behind the films

Clube das 5 — Alvorada (RS)

The short Se for cair, se atira!, about a boy who decides to react to bullying at school, was born from the Clube das 5, an audiovisual production project created in 2013 in the municipal schools of Alvorada, in Rio Grande do Sul. In addition to training students in the language of cinema, the project organizes the Alvorada School Film Festival (FECEA). The film was the directorial debut of Nilton Neto, then a 9th-grade student at EMEF Frederico Dihl.

Cinemanguinhos — Rio de Janeiro (RJ)

From the Manguinhos favela, in Rio de Janeiro, came A Menina Hip Hop and Memória de uma rezadeira, made by Cinemanguinhos (CineMGH). Based on self-management and partnership between residents, the project screens films in the community’s alleys, streets and courts and trains new filmmakers — such as Miguel Eduardo, a young native of Manguinhos who directed his first short there.

Anima Vam — Braga (Portugal)

From Portugal came stop-motion and paper-cutout animations such as Farrapo Velho and Missão 1313, produced at Anima Vam — an animation cinema outreach project created by animators Paulo D’Alva and Nuno Oliveira, in a partnership between the municipality of Braga and the production company Amarela Mecânica. In workshops with students from the Sá de Miranda and Palmeira schools, the project discusses themes such as migration, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

➡️ Discover all the shorts in the Student category screened at the Festival.

The awards

By launching the category, the 4th Chica Pelega also began granting official awards, with a technical jury and a children’s popular jury, the Young Critics. In the Student category, the jury chose as winner Deixa o PPG Voar, a 29-minute short made by students of the Paulo Mendes Campos Municipal School, in Belo Horizonte, under the direction of teacher Paula Valentine.

Who selected and who awarded

The curatorship of the Student category (shared with Childhoods on Screen) was signed by Carol Damião, Fran Camilo and Lili Reis:

  • Carol Damião — actress, writer and producer with a degree in Performing Arts from the Paraná School of Arts, with a background in theater and in preparing child and youth casts for audiovisual; creator of content on the de-romanticization of motherhood.
  • Fran Camilo — journalist from UEL and cinema specialist from Tuiuti, more than 15 years in audiovisual as executive producer, director, screenwriter and editor; owner of MetaFixa Produções and member of the Cine Cequinha collective.
  • Lili Reis — pedagogue from FAETERJ and postgraduate in Neuropsychopedagogy, storyteller since 1995, actress and member of the Coletivo Cria.

The jury responsible for awarding the films was made up of Priscila Pacheco and Arthur Luiz Peixer:

  • Priscila Pacheco — cultural manager, journalist and cinema specialist. Manager of the cultural sector of the Alliance Française of Curitiba, she coordinates Janela Periférica, a cinema and education project with children from peripheral regions.
  • Arthur Luiz Peixer — History teacher in Rio das Antas (SC), a graduate of Unespar, he is the creator of the Curtas Contestados project, in which he produces with students shorts connected to the history of the Contestado.

With the Student category, Chica Pelega expands its territory into the classrooms — and reaffirms that the future of cinema is also written at school.

Image: still from the short Novos amigos, novas soluções (Espinho, Portugal), screened in the Festival’s Student category.