Kids favourites are edgy, engaging character-driven stories, allowing boundary exploration, to be shared with friends and family.

Based on qualitative interviews conducted with 122 participants aged 7-18, the report “Close-Up-a study of 7–18-year-olds and their lives with films, series, and social media," was conducted by Will & Agency on behalf of the Danish Film Institute.

Among the key findings were the following:

  • Young audiences prefer edgy narratives, genre play, boundary exploration over social realism and 'the all-too-nice'.
  • Social media's 'real content' satisfies the need for identification, but relatable and authentic emotions remain crucial in fiction content.
  • Character-driven stories are more important than the message and theme,
  • Young audiences want to be emotionally engaged
  • As they grow older, they transition from seeking laughter to desiring relaxation, reflection, and partial disconnection.
  • Films are associated with Friday, friends and family.
  • Short formats series with light topics are best
  • Local films are perceived almost as one genre, although they want genre diversity
  • Possible interaction with content creators is a way to stimulate their engagement
  • Kids & youth actively watch and create user-generated content.

Sanne Juncker Pedersen, the DFI’s Strategic Head of 'Closer to the audience' Department said: "Our experience shows that deeper and on-going insights into children and young people's actual behaviour, lives, emotions, and thoughts can break echo chambers and be creatively inspiring. We all need to listen more if we want to maintain and strengthen relevance and appeal to new generations. The study is an important part of supporting this."

To read the full report (in ENGLISH): CLICK HERE.