These are the winners of the Cinekid x Amarte MediaLab open call 2025!
And the winners are… Bacchus, the story gobbler by Hay Kranen, Nienke Huitenga Broeren and Lieven Heeremans and Time Ripple by Eva Heijnen, Dionne Cats and Keez Duyves.
Both groups of makers will receive an amount of €12,000 to realize their work. The two works can be seen and played in the MediaLab during Cinekid Festival 2025, from October 12 to October 24 at Pathé Amsterdam Noord.
About the Cinekid x Amarte MediaLab open call
Amarte Fonds and Cinekid are joining forces for the third year in a row to give talented makers of new media the opportunity to create a brand new, interactive and immersive work for the Cinekid MediaLab. The festival theme for 2025 is time travel. This year Cinekid and Amarte were very surprised by the large number of entries, no less than 33; more than double the number of last year! The three-member jury was also impressed by the quality of the entries. From all the entries, the jury declared the following two works as winners.
Bacchus, the story gobbler by Hay Kranen, Nienke Huitenga Broeren and Lieven Heeremans
Bacchus, the story gobbler is an audio installation by audio collective De Merel uit de Machine, where children create and tell time travel stories together with AI. In the middle of a cozy sitting area with colourful cushions on a fur carpet is a speaker with a rhythmically glowing ball on it. A funny story about a dinosaur sounds from the speaker. Next to it is a microphone on a stand, with which children can respond to questions that the voice from the speaker asks. The voice incorporates their answers in the rest of the story.
For example, the voice asks: "What is the dinosaur afraid of?" Whereupon a child grabs the microphone, thinks for a moment and shouts "rabbits!" The voice thinks out loud and then says: "In the age of the dinosaurs, there were no rabbits, but okay." The voice then continues the story and says that the dinosaur was especially afraid of rabbits with pink backpacks.
“It is special that this concept is performed in interactive audio and thus brings together theatre sports, storytelling and AI. We are very curious about the dynamics between the different children and how this will work in a festival setting.”- The jury about ‘Bacchus, the story gobbler’
Time Ripple by Eva Heijnen, Dionne Cats and Keez Duyves
Time Ripple is an interactive film and game installation in which children playfully discover how their choices influence the future. Three characters from different eras – Evi (1823), Max (2025) and Nova (2225) – are connected to each other via a mysterious pond. Every decision a player makes has direct consequences for the water, air and nature in the other eras. In this way, children experience the ‘ripple effect’ of their actions.
In Time Ripple, you step into the life of one of the three children. You receive their special object, a smartphone, a compass or a bracelet, and discover a great secret through that object: everything you do influences time! Do you choose to change something? Or do you leave everything as it is?
“Spectacular mix between interaction with physical objects and film, in which the participants really feel the consequences of their actions. We look forward to the end result!”- The jury about ‘Time Ripple’