Along with its usual fare for kids, parents and teachers hungry for movies for and about children, the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children is increasingly taking on an industry component.

Prior to the fest’s kick-off on Friday, dozens from the screenwriting, production and book publishing industries converged for its second annual Astral Harold Greenberg Fund Family Fund networking event in downtown Toronto.

‘This networking started about five years ago, and we began formalizing it last year,’ explains Kelley Alexander, director of industry initiatives. ‘Part of what we do is to stimulate connections between sectors; not just in a multiplatform universe, but a book as a potential feature film, or a documentary premise; it could be anything.’

Attending the event on Wednesday were producers from 9 Story Entertainment (including opening speaker Madeleine Lévesque), Shaftesbury Films, MarVista Entertainment, CCI Entertainment and Breakthrough Films & Television, as well as book publishers Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Second Story Press, Annick Press, Dundurn Group, and many more.

‘This year the numbers grew by at least 10 companies,’ says Alexander. ‘It’s great to see the momentum that’s building.’

There will also be a cocktail party on Monday for Canadian delegates and those from around the world, at which organizers are hoping to see as many as 70 international buyers from Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, the U.K., the U.S. and Germany.

‘The point for us is to foster collaboration and to get talent to recognize talent, to meet one another and let things grow,’ says Alexander.

This is in addition to Sprockets two-part structure, in place since its inception 10 years ago, including a week-long school program for students grades one to 12, bookended on the weekends by a family program for kids aged three and up.

Sprockets runs to April 22. For more information check out www.sprockets.ca