The Into Film Festival is considered to be the biggest free youth film festival in the world and bookings are open to the 3,000 free screenings and events, to be held from 8th to 24th November, suitable for 5 to 19 year-olds. The festival is open to schools, home educators, colleges and youth leaders. It uses the magic of film to engage young minds in a broad range of topics, ranging from popular classics to exclusive screenings to preview new blockbusters.
This year’s film festival aims to involve some 500,000 young people and educators, hailing from all backgrounds and every corner of the UK. The festival gets support from all major cinema chains of UK and a vast variety of venues, to show over 130 films confirmed for screening at its best, which includes big screens like MAX screens, plus the 3D/4D experience. Some 600 venues across the UK will show not only animation, documentaries, foreign-language films but also classics and gems from archives.
The film festival has been curated with 6 themes in consideration, addressing diversity and topical issues like environment, war, immigration and bullying. The festival, packed with a varied programme, will kick-off with a pupil premier of ‘Paddington 2’. The first strand is Activate: Effective Change and will include films like Chasing Coral, A Beautiful Planet 3D and An Inconvenient Sequel. The Lets Play strand focuses on mainly primary school , to celebrate creativity and play via art, music, games or exploration.
The third strand is No Borders, No Boundaries and highlights films like Sonita, A Syrian Love Story, Dhanak, The Eagle Hunters and others. The secondary school strand is Generation Z, and aimed at those born after 1995, focuses on well-being and mental health. The History Action strand goes back into time, to key moments in history, which includes titles like Land of Mines, Hunger, Victoria and Abdul and others.
The final strand is Thriller and features favourites nominated by Into Film’s Youth Advisory Council and from the festival’s curation team that has identified key thriller titles also. The festival also includes Q&As with film-makers, talks by notable speakers on varied themes and offer all 5 to 19 year-olds with opportunities for further personal development.
The Into Film Festival, a celebration of film and education, has been made possible because of the support of BFI, with funding by National Lottery, delivery partners National Schools Partnership, Cinema First, a collaboration of cinema industry partners in UK. All details of free events and screenings, programme info, ticket booking and download resources, are available at the site – intofilm.org/festival.
