12-year-old Abe might not have much experience cooking, but he certainly has a passion for food. Caught amidst escalating family pressure to choose Judaism or Islam, and in the crosshairs of his father’s resolute denouncement of all religion, Abe decides to try a bit of everything, like a true connoisseur. Unfortunately, each family dinner ends up engulfed in more tension than the last. Dinner has become a microcosm of the enduring hostilities which unfortunately define Palestine and Israel. Abe is slowly learning he can’t please everyone all the time.

Binti has a charming personality, she just doesn’t seem to have those all-important followers. Not yet. Convinced she has what it takes to be famous on social media, Binti vlogs every moment. When the immigration police raid her home, and try to deport her and her dad, they are forced to flee. Seeking refuge with her new friend, Elias must find the courage to stand up for his friend.

Selected as the Dutch entry for the Oscars, Buladó is a rare film that tells the magical-realistic and heartwarming story of a small family in the countryside of Curaçao. As the competing ideologies of Kenza’s father, Ouira, and her spiritual grandfather, Weljo, begin to clash, the precocious and street-wise eleven-year-old is determined to find her own path into adult life.

Dark Cloud examines a growing epidemic deeply affecting the mental, emotional and even physical well-being of today’s youth — the toll of cyberbullying and digital antagonism — through the eyes of Carol Todd. Carol is the mother of Amanda Todd, the B.C. teen whose suicide after two years of bullying, exacerbated by a cyberstalker, became a flashpoint for global action and gained her the label “The Girl Who Woke Up the World.”

Based on the popular Canadian children’s TV series of the same name, Dino Dana The Movie celebrates blended families, smart kids and science above all! Only ten years old, Dana already has a solid working knowledge of the Mesozoic era, except one unanswered question: Where are all the kid dinos?

Young Felix is convinced his father is still alive. Though he disappeared at sea two years ago, Felix will not let go of the possibility he’s stranded and in need of help. Devising a top secret plan to set sail for his last known location, Felix enlists the help of Old Tom, a fisherman who  knows the local waters better than anyone. Felix sets off with his cat named Rover, who acts like a dog, and Tom’s one-legged thieving parrot. The crew embarks on an adventure to Darkshadow Island.

Sophie and Fritzi spend their days dreaming, and dancing with Sophie’s dog, Sputnik. Their summer is interrupted when Sophie is whisked away to her grandma’s house in Hungary. Soon it becomes apparent that she won’t be coming back to East Germany: the Berlin Wall has been erected.

Jacob is an imaginative boy who dreams of being an architect like his busy father. Mimmi is his know-it-all cousin who has the inside scoop about everything in her small town, Maskachka. With the help of an unruly pack of talking dogs, can they save Mimmi’s neighborhood from unwelcome change?

Twelve-year-old Florien is inseparable from his best friend, Lassie. Over 100-years-old, the glass blowing company, where Florien's father works, is forced to close its doors for good. Out of work, with a baby on the way, and cornered by an inhospitable new landlady, the family’s living arrangement is in jeopardy. The landlady, who has an aversion to dogs, tells the family to get rid of Lassie or they’ll have to move. Forced to give up Lassie, Florien is heartbroken. When he learns that Lassie has run away from the new place, Florien sets out to find Lassie and a grand adventure begins.

There are many lessons to be learned from the Holocaust. For students in Germany, understanding the full extent of Hitler’s regime and the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish people often comes with confusion and shame. Over the course of five years, filmmaker Elena Horn follows the educational journey of four students in her hometown of Fröndenberg, the very place she learned the lesson that changed her worldview at the tender age of 14.

Sam has concerns that he’ll eventually be on his own. While on family holiday he meets Tess, a somewhat more worldly eleven-year-old who is definitely up to something sneaky! An adventurous summer unravels as Sam and Tess become unlikely friends, learning extraordinary things about themselves and each other. This heartwarming film won the Audience Award at the NY Children’s Film Festival.

Shining a street light on the inequities caused by gender-based violence, discrimination and sexism, Caru Alves de Souza’s unrestrained first film celebrates the resistence of a young woman finding her balance while unexpectedly discovering a community of solidarity.

My Very Own Circus is a heartwarming story about a complex father/daughter relationship faced with the inevitable growing pains that stem from a free form life in the performing arts.

When Maya is 12 years old, she suddenly loses her hair. Within two weeks, she's completely bald. She has Alopecia Areata . Maya's body repels her hair like foreign material. Two years later, she got used to her bald head. But summer is brutal. When it's too hot for a wig and cap to hide under. In Summer Maya feels naked. And she wonders: How do the others see me? Am I good the way I am? Am I beautiful? Almost like answers to these questions, Maya and her friends produce tons of selfies. And somewhere between clicking, sharing and liking, the girls grow into young women.

In Temiscamingue, a small town in western Quebec, Gabrielle and Yoan are in the midst of the biggest change of their young lives: the transition to adulthood. Embracing one final summer of close friendship, before ‘life after high school’ officially commences, they’ve cultivated disparate aspirations for what comes next. Shy on the surface, Yoan is hard at work maintaining an online video journal and building a network of support for his move to the big city. He yearns to explore his sexuality and anything that piques his interest. Gabrielle, on the other hand, an exuberant extrovert, is contending with what it means to move away from her friends, family, and farm animals. Filled with nostalgia for a simple life, Gabrielle turns inward, deepening connections with those she cares for, soaking up the last few precious moments.

To be the daughters of accomplished artists is intimidating; there is intrinsic pressure to find one’s own artistic voice. The journey to realize this voice can be a lifelong endeavour, and the courage to experiment becomes the mechanism to cultivate an artistic practice. As a young adult, Jasa is now an interdisciplinary artist working mostly with visuals and images. Her sister Tyr is a classically trained musician, who also provides vocals and cello for their Montreal-based band, Syngja. Their most recent album is inspired by, and features cassette tape recordings of their great-grandmother singing Icelandic folk songs. With its release, they’ve been invited to Iceland as part of an artists residency.

This coming of age tale centres on the traditional nomad life of the Mongolian steppe, living in harmony with nature. After his father dies in a tragic car accident, Amra is forced to abandon his childhood reverie and assume financial responsibility for his family. Veins of the World marks Oscar nominated director Byambasuren Davaa’s debut, The Story of the Weeping Camel, as a dramatic feature filmmaker.

Convinced Akane is the sacred ‘Goddess of the Green Wind,’ an alchemist and his tiny fairy-like assistant usher her to their hidden world where not much makes sense. Director Keiichi Hara (Colorful, Miss Hokusai) returns to R2R with his marvellous creation, depicting a fantasy of pure Wonka-esque imagination.