Sprockets director/programmer Jane Schoettle has unveiled her picks for the inaugural Sprockets screenings April 21-26. The Toronto International Film Festival for Children’s lineup includes 14 features and 34 shorts from 16 countries spanning 11 languages (subtitled films are narrated), with the unifying theme being resourceful heroes.

There’s a novel programming strand called First Impressions, a three-pack of films that had an impact on Canadian directors: Virgo Clement chose to present To Kill a Mockingbird, Mina Shum opted for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, while Guy Maddin tellingly went with Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Recent features slated for their Toronto premiere at Sprockets include the Giffoni fave Eye of the Eagle by Peter Flinth (Denmark), Jacques Dubuisson’s Imuhar A Legend (France/Niger) and Goran Carmback’s Kalle Blomkvist – The Master Detective Lives Dangerously (Sweden).

Canadian fare includes Nicholas Kendall’s Kayla (Canada), winner of the People’s Choice Award at the first Montreal International Children’s Film Festival.

A warm-hearted family story set in the 1920s, Kayla was shot on location in the Eastern Townships last year by Productions Tele-Action producers Claudio Luca and Colin Neale. Distribution Film Tonic released the picture in English and French versions in the Cineplex Odeon circuit March 13.

A selected Sprockets shorts filmography ranges from the North American premieres of u.k. offerings such as Aardman’s Angry Kid by David Walsh and the rediscovered Animaland compilation by animation pioneer David Hand, to a Toronto preem for a four-pack from Australia’s Mark Trounce – Tuggan Tuggan/Tree Duck/Djet/ How Brolga Became a Bird.

The freshest fare is the National Film Board’s How Do They… series by Don White. Also programmed from Canada is the premiere of Sarah Abbott’s Why I Hate Bees.

Film craft workshops for kids are also part and parcel of the event, featuring a foley workshop headlined by Andy Malcolm, a traditional animation how-to under the toon tutelage of Sheridan College and Nelvana, and a special effects makeup exercise overseen by Complections.

The kid flick fest has a public and school portion, but no industrial component (beyond the hands-on and sponsor participation) at the moment. As to a timeline for potential implementation of a biz/sales element, tiff’s Piers Handling says it’s a matter of watching and seeing if the industry responds and shows interest rather than contemplating the artificial application of an industry side: ‘It would have to evolve naturally.’