You read that headline correctly. Australia and New Zealand cinemas are about to be invaded by a cat videos film festival.
CatVideoFest
I haven’t done any research to back up the following statement but here we go: literally everyone with an internet connection has experienced an average of 20,000 cat videos during their lifetime. If that’s you (according to my numbers, that’s definitely you), you’re in the prime demographic for a film festival dedicated to cat videos.
CatVideoFest is a (dare I use the word) curated compilation of the best cat videos pulled from hours of submissions. These include animated pieces, music videos, and the classic hits from the world wide web.
The festival has been going since 2019, playing to theatres in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The 2024 season blesses cinemas in Australia and New Zealand with its brisk 73-minute programme.
Part of the money raised by ticket sales goes towards a worthy cause. “A percentage of the proceeds from each event go to local animal shelters and/or animal welfare organizations,” the official site proclaims. “Since 2019, over $150,000 has been raised for local shelters in addition to adoptions, fostering, volunteer sign-ups and much more at shows.”
For a family-friendly cinema outing, CatVideoFest makes for an intriguing option—especially if you and the young ones have already experienced The Wild Robot, Transformers One, and Runt. It’ll also save your arm from having to put the phone in front of your friend’s face to share in the magic of a cat video, so there’s that.
If CatVideoFest sounds like a bit of you, get it in your diary asap as you won’t have much time to catch it on the big screen. As the poster says, it’s “fur a limited time” only.
