Co-operative Young Filmmakers’ Festival

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The 2004 festival is now calling for entries. If you want to be a part of CYFM 2004, check out their website (see below). The deadline is June 28th.

Back in October I spent two hectic days at the Co-operative Young Filmmakers’ Festival in Bradford.

It’s held in the prestigious setting of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, and the young filmmakers have their work shown on a big screen in the 300 seat Pictureville Cinema.

Students from within our own region were well represented, with Greenwood Dale School in Nottingham having three films screened. They are pictured on the right receiving their certificates.

It is interesting to compare and contrast this event with our own IAC festivals.

Deliberately, there are no overall winners; about 100 films are selected for screening making up about half the total entry. The selectors look for evidence that the filmmakers have demonstrated skills of teamwork and co-operation in their work.

But the organisers have this time broken with tradition and made some special awards. For example, The British Film Institute sponsored a prize for the best use of sound. There were also a number of special awards for co-operation. Interestingly, however, there was no mention of these in the festival programme; the co-op organisers have yet to acknowledge excellence in the way the IAC does.

However, they do provide a unique showcase for young people’s work. I was green with envy at how many films were entered; if only we could encourage as many to have their work assessed in one of our IAC competitions. They could take pride in being awarded a silver or gold seal (or maybe beyond!), and having it presented at our international festival.

Also appearing were representatives from the recent Blast TV series, broadcast at the end of 2003 in the early hours on BBC2 as part of the ‘Learning Zone’. The cream of young filmmakers’ productions were shown, with top BBC producers giving upbeat appraisals after each screening. It was definitely worth setting the video for.

So what can the filmmakers gain from co-op other than seeing their work on the giant screen? Well, a number of workshops are also organised, covering animation, acting and script writing. Funding comes from the co-op group, and other sponsors cover things like a glossy programme for the event.

All in all, a most enlightening two days, taking one into a world quite different to the usual video club circuit in terms of style and audience.

Young people are often criticised for showing wacky films with lots of bad language and unusual camerawork. Yes, there was some of this, but actually very little. On the whole the standard is rising from year to year, and I was particularly impressed with the filmmakers’ use of fast, stylish editing and slick animation.

The 2004 festival is now calling for entries. If you want to be a part of CYFM 2004, check out their website (see below). The deadline is June 28th, so get your director's cap on and make the most of the next few months!

I wish the Co-op well with the 2004 festival, and hope to see a few of you there.

For more details see: -

www.youngfilm-makers.coop

www.bbc.co.uk/blast

- Source: CEMRIAC March-April 2004

Page updated on 14 February 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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