Inspire your students through film at the Into Film Festival, 8th – 24th November 2017
“There is such a buzz around school with all the cinema trips going on at the moment, we’ve been able to offer trips for every Key Stage with so many different learning objectives supported by them, it’s been brilliant!”
Joseph Glover, William Ellis School
A trip to the cinema is a sure-fire way to excite your students. When it’s free and designed to support learning, develop literacy and critical skills, and promote discussion about a broad range of issues, it’s an opportunity not to miss – which is why, for many educators, the Into Film Festival has become a highlight of the school calendar.
The Into Film Festival is the world’s largest free film festival for young people, providing access to the big screen at its best, including IMAX screens and the 3D and 4D experience. This year it takes place from November 8th-24th, with a packed and varied programme of 3000 free screenings and events for 5-19 year-olds, many linked to topical themes or subjects in the curriculum. With support from all the major UK cinema chains as well as venues ranging from the British Library, the V&A, the BFI Southbank and Pinewood Studios to a secret bunker in Scotland, a farm in Wales, and an ark in Northern Ireland – the Festival seeks to actively involve 500,000 young people and educators from all backgrounds and corners of the UK in watching and making films, some for the first time.
The annual celebration of film and education is hosted by Into Film as part of our vision to put film at the heart of young people’s learning and personal development, and supported by the BFI, Cinema First, a wide collaboration with UK cinema industry partners and delivery partners National Schools Partnership.
The thought-provoking programme will offer a range of stories curated with six themes in mind. The selected film titles will address representation of diversity, and explore the many ways we can and do effect change, the value and innocent joy of creative play, and topical issues such as bullying, immigration, war and the environment. ‘Generation Z’, focusing on well-being, will open up discussion around young people and mental health, and a dedicated ‘History in Action’ strand will use recent releases, classics and archive film to explore key moments in history.
Mapped against curricula from across the four nations and regions, the titles are supported by the Festival’s various educational resources featuring discussion questions, review starters and extension activities for use at screenings and back in the classroom. In response to teacher feedback many of the resources will this year, for the first time, be in PowerPoint format so teachers can adapt them to suit the needs of their students. A review writing competition will offer additional possibilities for using the Into Film Festival to support literacy and critical thinking.
Film titles will include blockbuster premieres alongside classics and hidden gems from the archive, spanning modern foreign language to animation to films adapted from books and plays. The big winners from this year’s awards season feature strongly with films like La La Land(12A), Moonlight (15), Loving (12), Fences (12) and A United Kingdom (12A). Award-winning documentary releases from the last year such as I Am Not Your Negro (12A) and The Eagle Huntress (U) are spread across the programme, as are the best of this year’s blockbusters like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (12A), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12A), and major new releases including Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk (12A) and Baby Driver (15). Plus a range of classics such as To Sir, With Love (PG) Gandhi(PG), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (PG), Ratcatcher (15) and Tron (PG), and ecologically-focused documentaries like a An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power (PG) and A Beautiful Planet 3D(U).
Book-inspired film adaptations will, as always, be a key feature. This year the possibilities include, among others: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (U), Captain Underpants (U), Miss Peregrine and the Home for Peculiar Children (12), Swallows and Amazons (PG), Matilda (PG), Aladdin (U), Beauty and the Beast (1991, U and 2017, PG), and, for secondary, Pride and Prejudice (U), Howards End (PG), A Monster Calls (12A), Sherlock Holmes (12A), Murder on the Orient Express, Hidden Figures (PG) and Denial (12A).
Q&A’s with filmmakers including big names from across the industry, and talks by notable speakers on themes ranging from animation and reviewing to copyright, film classification and careers in the film industry, will offer further personal development opportunities for all 5 – 19 year olds. Special screenings will be on offer to support Anti-Bullying Week and Parliament Week, taking place during the Festival’s duration.
Over half of all screenings will be audio-described, subtitled or autism-friendly. Festival Guides, including one for educators of students with SEND, will be available to help you get the most from your visit.
In a survey of teachers who attended last year, 94% said the Festival activities were useful in helping to deliver the curriculum, 94% felt the Festival activities were valuable in terms of the broader education of young people and 82% said that the Festival has made them more likely to use cinema visits to support the delivery of the curriculum.
Events fill up fast so make sure you book early!
“I cannot state how wonderful this experience was for my pupils…I felt honoured to be able to take some of these children to the cinema for the first time. I believe this is a trip which they will remember and think back on for a very long time. I teach in a deprived area and this trip was very special for staff and pupils alike.” Teacher, Into Film Festival 2016
The Into Film Festival 2017 will take place from 8th-24th November. All screenings and events are free. Bookings go live for Into Film Club leaders on Wednesday 6 September and for all other educators on Thursday 7 September. Visit www.intofilm.org/festival