In an effort to teach kids the art of film making and to celebrate family-friendly films, the Bay Area International Children's Film Festival will kick off its fourth year this Saturda and Sunday, Jan. 28-29, with a full line-up of high-quality films from around the world.

The festival - BAICFF - was founded by a group of parents from The Renaissance School in Oakland especially for families, as a creative community event that fosters global understanding and cultural exchange. The two-day event will be held in Alameda and includes animated, live action, short and feature length films as well as popular hands-on film-making workshops for children ages 6 and up.

Each day will include a showing of several short films in the morning followed by a feature film and a second group of short films in the afternoon with a second feature at the end of the day. All the films are chosen with the whole family in mind, though younger children may especially enjoy the morning films; children 6 and over will be particularly engaged by the afternoon shorts; and the afternoon feature is geared toward ages 8 and up.

Animation workshops

Back by popular demand, BAICFF will offer unique hands-on workshops for children, with at least one workshop geared towards parents and children learning together. Jim Capobianco - Pixar artist, Academy Award nominee, local film producer and co-founder of BAICFF - will lead a selection of workshops, including an introduction to stop-motion animation using professional clay animation figures and a live-action pixelation workshop.

The film festival audience will have a chance to view some of the creative results of the workshops each afternoon.

Tickets and festival information

The festival will take place Saturday through Sunday, Jan. 28-29, at Michaan's Auctions, the beautifully restored Art Deco Movie Theater at the Alameda Naval Air Station, 2700 Saratoga St., Alameda. Doors will open at 9:30 a.m., films begin at 10:30 a.m.

All tickets provide access to multiple films. Regular ticket prices: half-day pass is $10, a full-day pass is $15,or weekend pass is $20. Filmmaking workshop tickets can be purchased online; space is limited.

Attendees will enjoy healthy, international food at the festival from local food purveyors.

Sponsorship is provided by Wikia, a collaborative online publishing platform that enables people around the world to discover, create and share content on any topic. Wikia's 275,000 wiki sites are written by community members that are passionate about subjects ranging from video games, TV shows and movies to food, fashion and current events.

Visit www.baicff.com for more details.