Edinburgh Launch 2018 ‘The Young And The Wild’ Programme

Next month 2018 Edinburgh Film Festival will kick-off with the programme launched later this month. Today we got another glimpse into that programme when the festival launched it’s ‘The Young & The Wild‘ Youth Strand.

Taking place from 21 – 30 June 2018, The Young & the Wild will host an array of cutting-edge film screenings, special events, talks and masterclasses for youth audiences at this year’s Festival.

The strand will be taking over the new venue, Cornerstone Centre at St John’s Church on Princes St, The Young & the Wild HQ will offer a free programme of filmmaker masterclasses, hands-on workshops and careers advice sessions for 15-25 year-olds. The youth programme of events is co-designed by the EIFF Young Programmers, a group of 15-19 year-olds who have curated their own shorts strand, The Young & the Wild, and badged events and screenings in the brochure that are relevant for youth audiences.

Programme highlights this year include an illustrated Animation Masterclass from Disney•Pixar’s Character Tailoring Lead, Fran Kalal (Incredibles 2, Inside Out, Up, WALL·E), a BAFTA Scotland Careers Close-up Masterclass with cinematographer Urszula Pontikos (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Lilting, Second Coming) and a screenwriting Masterclass with EIFF Screenwriter in Residence, Nicole Taylor (Three Girls, The C Word).

The programme will offer hands-on practical filmmaking workshops that enable young people to express their stories visually: for aspiring directors, EIFF will host a Directing Workshop with Garry Fraser (Second Unit Director on Trainspotting 2, Writer/Director on serial drama The Grey Area), budding writers will get a chance to train their skills in the film journalism and screenwriting workshops and for those looking to create a film in a week, the doc workshop for a chance to get your film screened during the official The Young & the Wild closing event.

With a strong emphasis on promoting career and training opportunities, Saturday 23 June will also see the ever-popular Careers Surgery with filmmakers and industry experts including BBC Studios, STV, Into Film and NFTS Scotland. Throughout the week, visitors can find out about how to get into radio production, film journalism and film festivals.

Continuing their commitment to breathing life into archival content, EIFF has partnered with Edinburgh’s notoriously exciting Tinderbox Orchestra to deliver Moving Music, a cutting-edge cinematic journey seeing young musicians respond musically to the silent archive short films The Ring, from the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive, and Looking for Lucey, a University of Edinburgh archive project run by MSc Film, Exhibition & Curation students. The performance takes place on Friday 29 June at 7pm. Tickets go on sale from 12noon and are priced at £5 standard and free with a £5 The Young & the Wild

Any UK-based students with a big interest in film journalism, check out the the Student Critics Competition, ed by James and Morag Anderson. Now in its sixth year, the Student Critics Programme aims to the next generation of film journalists, offering experience, skills and networking opportunities to students with a ion for cinema. This amazing opportunity is open to UK-based students aged 18-26. To enter, send a review of a recent or classic film by 25 May 2018. Full information about the competition and how to enter can be found at www.edfilmfest.org.uk/studentcritics

This year will also see an expanded offer of free workshops for primary and secondary schools, together with Into Film and Scottish Youth Film Festival, giving pupils the opportunity to make their first steps in filmmaking, discover Scottish film archives, and participate in SYFF’s What Scotland Means to Me filmmaking competition.

Former Doctor Who star and Scottish Youth Theatre alumni, Karen Gillan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Guardians of the Galaxy) will also take up her role as Patron of The Young & the Wild strand.

Young Programmer Madeleine Reay says: “I know this Festival is going to be a great one! There are some amazing films in the programme that I cannot wait for everyone to see.”

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs said: “It’s an outstanding line-up created by young people for this year’s The Young & the Wild programme. The Scottish Government’s Year of Young People is all about creating new opportunities for young people’s skills and talents to flourish. This project is a unique chance for them to learn directly from world-renowned industry experts and gain hands-on experience to develop their ions and make their CVs stand out.”

To attend The Young & the Wild events participants will need to for a £5 . This provides free access to all HQ events in addition to giving access to £5 discounted tickets for the majority of EIFF films. EIFF is committed to encouraging young people to engage with diverse types of cinema, as well as encouraging young filmmaking talent.

Tickets go on sale at 12noon today, Tuesday 8th May.