The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is an annual video contest in which young filmmakers create weird short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in about 90 seconds. (Ever since 1922, the Newbery Medal has been recognized as the most prestigious award in children’s literature.)

Who can make movies for this film festival? Anyone under 18, and adult help is perfectly OK … in fact, it’s encouraged!

Every year, we show the best movies we receive at special-event screenings in New York City, Chicago, San Antonio, Boston, Tacoma, and other cities—co-hosted by festival founder James Kennedy (author of the YA fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish and more) and other award-winning children’s authors. 

The movies we’ve received have been ingenious, hilarious, and impressive—from musicals to stop-motion Claymation, from puppet shows to animation! Check out 25 of the best 90-Second Newbery videos right here.

Here are the rules:

1. Your video should be about 90 seconds. (Okay, okay: most the movies we receive are longer than that. Frankly, that’s okay! But let’s try to keep them short.)

2. Your video has to be about a Newbery award-winning (or Newbery honor-winning) book. Here’s a list of all the winners (with helpful links to corresponding movies!)

3. We are NOT looking for book trailers, video book reports, someone merely summarizing the book into the camera, or a bunch of clip art with an explanation of the plot. We’re looking for full-on MOVIE DRAMATIZATIONS, with mostly child actors, that manage to tell the entire story of the book in 90 seconds. (That is, your movie shouldn’t conclude with a narrator saying stuff like, “And if you want to know more, just read the book.” Give us the whole story—abbreviated, and dramatized.) 

4. The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is open to anyone anywhere in the world, not just the United States.

5. You can do this project individually, as a group, as a class, as a school, as a family—any arrangement is okay!

6. Participants should be mostly 18 or under, but it’s okay for adults to act in the movies too. And adult help from teachers, parents, etc. is TOTALLY OKAY.

7. Upload your videos to YouTube or Vimeo (but please not WeVideo) and send me the link at james [at] 90secondnewbery [dot] com. (Note that there is one “r” in “Newbery,” not two! And please actually email me. If you just “share” the video from YouTube, that makes it difficult for me to respond to you.) Make the subject line be “90 SECOND NEWBERY” and please tell me your name, age, where you’re from, and whatever other comments you’d like to include. You can provide an alias if you want; I understand privacy concerns. Complete details on how to submit your movie here.

8. Sending the link to me grants me (James Kennedy) the right to post it on my blog and to other websites where I sometimes post content (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and to share in promotional media and at public readings and school visits—and hopefully the “90-Second Newbery” Film Festival screenings!

9. The general deadline for the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is JANUARY 17, 2025.

10. From now on, we are not accepting any more movies made using Roblox, Powtoon, Gacha, Moovly, Vyond, Animaker, Scratch, Minecraft, or similar progams. Good 90-Second Newbery movies have a handmade feel that showcase real kids’ voices, real kids’ faces, and real kids’ artwork—not interchangeable digital slop generated by a charmless algorithm. We are also not allowing AI in making your video, especially AI voices. Please consult my step-by-step advice on how to make a 90-Second Newbery, including common mistakes to avoid.

Teachers, here’s a fun project that will get your students reading Newbery winners. Students, here’s an excuse to mess around with video equipment. Librarians, here’s an activity to do with your teen advisory boards. Homeschoolers, here’s a good long-term project that teaches everything from close reading to scriptwriting, storyboarding to directing, and cinematography to video editing! 

Intimidated? Don’t know where to begin? Check out our Video Resources page for a step-by-step primer on how to make a 90-Second Newbery video, plus lots of other tips, tricks, and tutorials.

You can find our press kit explaining the film festival here.