Sprockets is in gear to pull in young movie lovers for its seventh international film festival for children.

The fest, running April 16-25 in Toronto, will screen 17 features and 42 short films from 19 countries.

‘We spend almost eight months looking for films,’ says Sprockets director Jane Schoettle. ‘We’re looking for films with complicated emotional themes, with issues that children here are dealing with.’

The festivities open with a gala and screening of Wondrous Oblivion, directed by Paul Morrison. The U.K. feature takes place in 1960s Britain, when racial tensions are high and a boy must choose between his new Jamaican friends and fitting in.

Other programs scheduled include: the Sprockets Family Weekend, Film Craft Workshops, the Sprockets School Program, Jump Cuts: Young Filmmakers Showcase and Reel Rascals, which screens films for children aged three to seven.

Industry professionals will host three workshops for future filmmakers. Flipping Over Animation will teach children the basics of telling stories through pictures; Learn to Make a Film – in a Day! will show the fundamentals of filmmaking; and in From Dream to Screen(Play), kids can learn the bascis of how to write a script.

This year, the school program will run April 19-23. Over the course of five days, Sprockets will screen 27 films from 10 countries that are categorized for different grade levels. Students will get the chance to see Ted Kotcheff’s classic The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz on the big screen as well as many new films. Rob Thompson’s Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown, for example, will be making its Canadian premiere.

Schoettle expects attendance to be high this year and she attributes the growing audiences to word of mouth from past festival attendees.

‘They really are our best ambassadors,’ she says. ‘They come and the next year they might bring someone else with them.

‘Every year we’ve grown in attendance; we’ve grown from 2,000 to 16,000. That’s a lot for six years. I assume we’ll post some healthy numbers this year.’

For festival details, visit the Sprockets website.

-www.bell.ca/sprockets