90-Second Newbery Film Festival: Making Great Books Into Great Movies

The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is a video contest, culminating in live events, in which young filmmakers are challenged to create short videos that compress the entire story of any Newbery Medal or Honor winning book in just a few minutes. Creative twists are encouraged—Charlotte's Web in the style of a horror movie, for instance, or The Tale of Despereaux in the musical style of Les Miserables—and adult help is okay. The aim of this program is threefold: (1) To entice students into reading and discussing Newbery award winning books—including older, unjustly obscure titles; (2) To encourage the close, intelligent reading necessary to write a script that wittily sums up an entire book in a very short movie; (3) To give an opportunity for students to use new technologies, such as video equipment and video editing software, in a constructive way that promotes literacy. The best videos received are showcased at annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival screenings in New York City, Chicago, San Antonio, Minneapolis, and many other cities across the U.S. These free events combine screenings of the movies with live Newbery-themed entertainment, co-hosted by film festival founder and children’s author James Kennedy and other and award-winning childrens authors such as Jon Scieszka, Rita Williams Garcia, Jenni Holm, and more. In this session, we will share some of the most best 90-Second Newbery videos and share best practices for making 90-Second Newbery videos at your school, and even putting on one's own screenings.