How Can Film Criticism Grow Up with Its Audience? Current Challenges of Writing about Youth Cinema.

Panel Talk hosted by Berlin Critics’ Week, the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA), the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI) and the German Film Critics Association (VdFk)
Saturday, 14 February 2026
1:45 PM – 3:15 PM
Thuringian State Representation in Berlin
Vertretung des Freistaats Thüringen beim Bund
Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße 64 10117 Berlin

Films for young audiences are everywhere — yet film criticism rarely treats them with the same attention, depth, or seriousness as “adult” cinema. This panel takes a closer look at why that is, and why it matters. How do labels like “children’s film” or “youth film” shape public perception, media coverage, distribution, and cultural value? How are critical and viewing habits changing in the digital network society? And what gets lost when these films are sidelined in critical discourse? The discussion brings together Carmen Gray, New Zealand-born freelance film critic, journalist, and programmer; Tobias Krell, former co-programmer of the Munich CineKindl Film Festival and television presenter/reporter/editor; and Axel Timo Purr, editor at the online film magazine artechock. Moderated by Marta Bałaga, film journalist based in Finland and Poland. Welcome address: Gudrun Sommer (ECFA Board /DOXS RUHR), Ahmed Shawky (FIPRESCI President). Together they explore where and how writing on children’s and youth films can be published today, how broader audiences might be reached, whether new forms of criticism are needed, and who film criticism should address in the future — parents, adults, or young viewers themselves. A conversation about visibility, responsibility, and the future of film criticism.

Marta Bałaga
Marta Bałaga is a film journalist and moderator, writing for Variety and Cineuropa. She has moderated at Cannes, Berlinale, Flanders Film Days and collaborated with Helsinki Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, Finnish Film Affair, New Horizons Film Festival and more. She has led MIOB’s LAB of Cultural, Creative and Festival Journalism and Söderlångvik Masterclass. She’s a member of FIPRESCI and the European Film Academy, and has served on many juries, including Venice International Film Critics’ Week.

Carmen Gray
Carmen Gray is a freelance journalist, critic, and film programmer from New Zealand, who lives in Berlin. She writes on cinema for publications including The New York Times and Sight & Sound, and programmes for the Generation section of the Berlinale and the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Tobias Krell
Tobias Krell has been exploring questions of knowledge as “Checker Tobi” in the KiKA series of the same name since 2013. This was followed by two successful feature films: Checker Tobi and the Mystery of Our Planet (2019) and Checker Tobi and the Journey to the Flying Rivers (2023), which attracted more than 1.5 million viewers. Since January 2026, his latest film, Checker Tobi 3 – The Secret Ruler of the Earth, has been showing in cinemas.

Axel Timo Purr
Axel Timo Purr is editor of the online film magazine artechock and publisher and editor of the literary magazine Literatur Review. After conducting field research in East Africa on modern (anti-)witchcraft movements, the informal sector and global economic influences on individual biographies, he has been coordinating a network for translation and design at virtual-earth.de since 1999 and has been working as a journalist on African, literary and film topics since 2001 for artechock, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the NZZ, among others.