More than 1,000 students are set to attend films tomorrow and Friday at Liberty Theatre.

The students, from Bermuda's nursery, primary, middle and secondary schools, will attend film screenings at the BIFF Kids Film Festival's third annual School Screening Programme.

Nursery school and younger primary school students will attend a Big World Toons programme, featuring a series of age-appropriate shorts from the world's top animation studios. The films are fun and enjoyable, but are also designed to encourage students to think about the larger world around them.

Older primary school students will attend a Books to Film programme produced by noted educators Scholastic, the largest publisher and distributor of children's books in the United States. The students will hear the three books — 'Diary of a Worm', 'Giraffes Can't Dance' and 'Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type' — read aloud, with images from the books projected on screen, and then will view films adapted from those books.

Middle and secondary school students will attend a screening of the award-winning documentary film, 'Without the King', about the last reigning monarch in Africa.

After the films, Shelley McKinnon-Burgess, artistic director of theatre group JARGAN Enterprises, Inc., will lead discussions with the students.

Students from ten schools, and three nursery schools, will participate in the programme. Participating schools are Victor Scott, West Pembroke, St. George's Prep, West End, West Pembroke, Whitney, Saltus, Warwick Academy, Bermuda High School and Gilbert Institute. Classes from St. Paul's Pre-School, Bloomfield Nursery and Primary, and the Academy at Woodlands will also attend. "The positive response to our school screening programme has been very gratifying," Ms. McKinnon-Burgess said in a press release. "The programme has grown by 40 percent this year. We are pleased to have such great support from teachers in the community, and we are delighted to communicate such positive messages to students in Bermuda."

* For more coverage of the BIFF Kids Film Festival, see tomorrow, Friday and Saturday for film reviews.