Free screenings and events for children to learn through film available to book now.
Thousands of school children and young people from Birmingham are being given the chance to take part in exclusive free screenings and film related events as part of the first ever National Youth Film Festival. Cinemas across Birmingham including the MAC, Cineworld, Empire Great Park, Odeon New Street and Odeon Broadway Plaza will be showing a range of films between the 21st October and 8th November, and hosting events between 21st and 25th October.
This major new nationwide event on the arts calendar is a celebration of film and cinema, enabling thousands of young people to enjoy a wide variety of film and to engage with the film industry in an educational framework.
Cinemas around Birmingham taking part in the Festival are offering schools, colleges and youth groups the chance to take young people to see a diverse array of films for free, including classics, world cinema, animation, recent releases, documentary and more – encouraging them to learn through watching and discussing films with their classmates, supported by teaching resources to deepen engagement with film. Films confirmed include an updated reworking of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, titles from World Cinema such as Hindi film I Am Kalam, Alfie The Little Werewolf (The Netherlands), Out in the Dark (Israel) alongside classics such asThe Sword in the Stone, documentaries including Earth and Chimpanzee and new recent releases including Star Trek Into Darkness andChasing Mavericks.
In addition to screenings, the MAC and Cineworld will be hosting exclusive film related activities including:
· A screening of Great Expectations followed by a discussion on film industry roles and the effect of copyright theft. Tuesday 22nd October at 10 am at Cineworld Birmingham.
· Frances Ha will be followed by an interactive discussion with the British Board of Film Classification – the body responsible for deciding film age ratings in the UK. Wednesday 23rd October at 10 am at the MAC.
· Beasts Of The Southern Wild will be followed by a discussion on film with Oxfam – the globally renowned aid and development charity. Friday 25th October at 10 am at the MAC.
The National Youth Film Festival is aimed at schools, colleges and youth groups and tickets to screenings and events can be booked free of charge by teachers on a first-come first served basis at: www.nationalyouthfilmfestival.
Learning is at the core of the National Youth Film Festival and every film has been programmed for its own educational value. In addition, the Festival are also encouraging young people to get creative and to make their own short films in their Film Making Awards – a nationwide competition where the winners will have their film played on the big screen at the Festival closing gala.
The National Youth Film Festival forms a key element of a new four-year programme funded by the BFI and Cinema First for watching, making and learning about film, which will be available to every child and school in the UK and will be delivered by FILM NATION UK, a new organisation, that builds on the work of two leading film education charities, FILMCLUB and First Light.
