The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is partnering with Learning and Teaching Scotland to broadcast select Festival education events live to schools across Scotland via GLOW Meet, the world's first national intranet for education on Tuesday 22 June.
The EIFF Media Day sessions will simultaneously offer English and Media students in the cinema and in classrooms across Scotland the opportunity to ask questions and gain insights into the film industry through the GLOW Meet.
EIFF Special Projects Manager Nicola Kettlewood said: “Our Media Days for schools pupils are already immensely popular with Edinburgh schools and it is wonderful that by working with Learning and Teaching Scotland we are able to open this up to young people across Scotland”.
Edinburgh Schools Film Competition
Edinburgh pupils will be taking a starring role at EIFF this year as the selected films from the Edinburgh Schools Film Competition unspool on 19 June.
The competition, which is sponsored by Bright Grey and funded by Awards for All, has being organised through a partnership of the EIFF, Pilton Video and City of Edinburgh Council.
Young Edinburgh filmmakers from 38 city schools (Primary, Secondary, Special Schools and one Nursery) submitted over 140 films.
The nine Youth Jurors selected the final 40 films which will be shown at separate Primary and Secondary School screenings during the Festival.
Neil Cameron, Head of PR for Bright Grey said the response from children of all ages had been "fantastic".
"The film-making process has really captured their imagination and it's great to see the talent we have across the city. Hopefully the competition will encourage them to develop their creative skills further, after all the Festival is renowned as a launch pad for stars of the future."
As a new sponsor of the Arts, Bright Grey’s sponsorship was matched by a New Arts Sponsorship Grant supported by the Scottish Government in conjunction with Arts & Business Scotland.
Joanna McKinlay, Project Manager of the Schools Film Competition said the Youth Jury said the jury had found the selection and rejection process "a learning curve":
"There have been many debates on which films were selected and the dilemmas involved in choosing those that make the final cut. They have been very diplomatic and have given each film they watch serious consideration putting the skills they have learned in their media courses to good use," she said.
Prizes will be awarded for selected films featuring in the Edinburgh Schools Film Competition at
the private screenings on 17 June (Primary) and 18 June (Secondary).
Parents, grandparents, teachers and film fans can see the films on Saturday 19 at 10am (Primary) and 12pm (Secondary) and tickets are available for free from the EIFF Box Office.
Free schools screenings
Among the school events this year the EIFF is again holding two schools free feature-length animation screenings of The Illusionist (17 June, 9.30am) and Toy Story 3 - 3D (21 June, 9.30am) with Q & As afterwards with the audience.