Launch of new film education charity Into Film

Actor Luke Evans with students

This week saw a warm and welcoming launch for Into Film, the film education charity that is putting film at the heart of the educational, cultural, creative and personal development of children and young people aged 5-19 across the UK.

Supported by the BFI, and a range of other funders, Into Film is building on the work of two former film education charities, FILMCLUB and First Light, to deliver film-based programmes to children and young people across the UK.

The organisation was officially launched at London’s Westminster Academy on Wednesday 5 February in front of an audience of students and guests from across the film industry and education sector. Speaking at the event were young filmmakers, film watchers and students, actor Eddie Redmayne, Into Film Chair Eric Fellner (co-chair of Working Title Films), Chief Executive Paul Reeve, and board members filmmaker Baroness Beeban Kidron and education consultant Sir Alasdair Macdonald.

Working with the education sector, film industry and arts and cultural organisations, Into Film’s ambitious and inclusive ‘See. Think. Make. Imagine’ programme aims to make a step change in film learning by encouraging and enabling watching, making and critical understanding for students in every school in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Teachers will be given training and resources to support engagement at all levels and promote the use of film as a powerful education resource. Key to the delivery of the programme will be a new digital platform offering interactive modules, teaching and learning tools and tutorials delivered by leading industry practitioners. Currently in development this will be phased in instalments from autumn 2014. There will also be tailored and, where relevant, bilingual content to reflect the different cultural and curriculum requirements.

Into Film has also set up a Youth Advisory Council to ensure that the views and opinions of young people inform the growth of its film education offer.

The BFI has invested £26m of Lottery funding over four years for Into Film to deliver a bold and visionary new film education programme into the 26,700 schools in the UK. The BFI’s aim is to create a single unified programme for watching, making and learning about film to safeguard and boost future film audiences through learning and appreciation of film and to stimulate a new generation of filmmakers and film talent.

Read more on Into Film