Roll up the red carpet

A little boy made of paper learns to fly. Another boy understands the secret language of babies. Fuzzy ducklings discover the world. A teen chess champ learns that she can’t do it all.

Varied themes, live action and animation: The first Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival, Friday through Sunday at the Autry National Center, offers a veritable smorgasbord of more than 70 recent independent short films from around the world for children of all ages -- and parents and animation fans too.

Presented by the nonprofit, San Diego-based Children’s Film Festival Co., the selections, grouped separately for audiences from toddlers to high schoolers and beyond, will be screened in the Autry’s Wells Fargo Theater.

No blockbusters, no celebrity red carpet, no frills, says Dan Bennett, the company’s executive director. “The idea was not to get too fancy with it, just get some good movies and put ‘em up on a screen for kids to enjoy.”

The family-friendly event kicks off Friday evening with Daniel Junge’s inspirational documentary “Chiefs,” the story of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indian high school students and their successful basketball team on a Wyoming reservation.

Bennett, film critic for the North County Times, was on a panel of five who made the selections from 150 submissions.

The panel looked for “creative animation and films that had a kind of energy and some new ideas,” Bennett says. The object was to find something different from the usual television or movie theater fare.

Although the emphasis is on nonviolent, lighter themes, some films, especially those geared to teenagers, do include heavier subject matter, such as the death of a parent, illness and the trials of adolescence.

“There’s no doctrine involved,” Bennett stresses. “We’re not afraid to have films that address different things kids are interested in.”

He points to a film running Sunday called “Genie in a Bottle Unleashed,” made by two preteen boys from Chicago, the only kid filmmakers in the festival.

“It uses a slightly humorous approach,” he says, “but it’s a close look at what atomic energy means as far as warfare goes.”

In “Binta and the Great Idea,” a live-action celebration of imagination from Spain, a Senegalese girl and her father help change attitudes toward girls and education.

A compilation from Sesame Street Workshop filmmaker Eva Saks takes a comic look at candy, math and messy little girls.

One higher-profile highlight is “Moongirl,” a whimsical new film by Henry Selick, who directed “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach.” Winner of the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Short Film Special Jury Prize, it’s a computer-animated short about a boy who makes a surprise flight into outer space and meets the Girl in the Moon.

In addition, Canadian Beverly Shaffer, the 1977 Oscar winner for her short documentary “I’ll Find a Way,” will be on hand for a Q&A; after Sunday’s afternoon screening of “Mr. Mergler’s Gift,” a true story she directed about an ill piano teacher and a 9-year-old prodigy.

“We tried to find a wide range of styles and approaches,” Bennett notes.

Kids and adults can also learn animation basics in hands-on workshops at 3 and 4 p.m. Saturday, open to all ages -- “really anybody who can pick up a pencil or crayon,” Bennett says.

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Los Angeles International

Children’s Film Festival

Where: Wells Fargo Theater, Autry National Center, Griffith Park, 4700 Western Heritage Way,

Los Angeles

When: Opens 7 p.m. Friday. Call or go to website for program details. Runs 3 to 9:15 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. Sunday.

Price: Opening-night movie and benefit dessert reception: $15 adults; $10 ages 17 and younger. All other film programs: $5 adults; $4 ages 17 and younger. Festival passes: All-Events Super Pass, including opening-night benefit and workshops: $40 ages 17 and younger; $50 adults. Saturday/Sunday Super Pass, including workshops: $25 ages 17 and younger; $30 adults. Sunday Super Pass: $20 ages 17 and younger; $25 adults.

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Info: (760) 470-2481

www.lachildrensfilm.org

www.autrynationalcenter.org

Tickets: www.presaleticketing.com