The Boston 2020-2021 90-Second Newbery Film Festival: Online Screening!

Hello, Boston-area fans of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Usually, we do our screenings live at libraries and theaters around the country, including at the Boston Public Library. We obviously can’t do any live screenings this year . . .

So instead, we are doing online screenings! In video above, join film festival founder James Kennedy (author of the YA fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish and the upcoming adult speculative thriller Dare To Know—go ahead, pre-order it!) and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion and many other great kids’ books) as we watch the best kid-made 90-Second Newbery videos . . . all of them from in and around Boston! Thanks to the Boston Public Library for making this possible.

We even open up the show with a brief skit that investigates the MYSTERIOUS FATES of previous participants in the 90-Second Newbery over the past ten years. And there’s singing! (Special thanks to guest star Freya Trefonides.)

Want to learn more about the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival? Check out our official website at www.90secondnewbery.com. The deadline for submitting movies for next year is January 14, 2022.

Thank you to all the young filmmakers for their fantastic movies, and the families, teachers, and librarians who assisted them! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the video above.

Here’s the program order:

1. Frog and Toad Together (Arnold Lobel, 1973 Honor) by Bea and Orson of Eliot School, Boston, MA

2. The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate, 2013 Medal Winner) by the West Bridgewater Public Library

3. The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin, 1979 Medal) by Ira Bagga, Lexington, MA

4. Last Stop on Market Street (Matt de la Pena, 2016 Medal) by Emma and Julia and Friends, Boston, MA

5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg, 1968 Medal Winner) by Emma, Tess, Ben, and Andrew Boston, MA

6. Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1967 Honor) by the Benali Family

7. Long Way Down (Jason Reynolds, 2018 Honor) by Rory, Lennon, Shai, Ari, Nadia, and Dweezil of Atrium School of Watertown, MA

Thanks so much for your movies! See you next year—hopefully at our live screenings again!

Thanks again to the Boston Public Library for sponsoring this event!


James Kennedy is the author of the YA fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish and the adult speculative thriller Dare To Know. He is the founder and curator of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two daughters. You can find him on the web at http://www.jameskennedy.com and on Twitter at @iamjameskennedy.


Keir Graff is the author of funny and fantastical middle-grade adventure novels including The Tiny Mansion, The Phantom Tower (named a Best Children’s Book by the Chicago Tribune), and The Matchstick Castle (an official Illinois Reads selection). He also writes books for grown-ups—some of them under fake names! He lives in Chicago with his wife Marya, sons Felix and Cosmo, and cats Toothless and Totoro. Follow him on Twitter at @KeirGraff and find out more at www.keirgraff.com.

Do you want to support the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, so we can keep this crazy show going every year, coast to coast? Please make a tax-deductible donation to the 90-Second Newbery here so we can keep bringing this program to everyone across the country for yet another ten years! The 90-Second Newbery is under the nonprofit fiscal sponsorship of Fractured Atlas.