The Young Film Academy (YFA) was established in 2004 and is based in London. Young Film Academy is the educational sister company to Magma Pictures. Young Film Academy is the UK’s leading[1] provider of practical filmmaking programmes to young people aged 8-18. YFA works with over eighty of the UK's leading independent and state schools with their flagship programme, the One Day Film School.[2] Young Film Academy is also the workshop provider for UK arts festivals, including the Guardian Hay Festival[3] and The Edinburgh International Film Festival,[4]The Minghella Film Festival,[5] The High Tide Festival[6] and the Barbican's London Children's Film Festival.[7]
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Directors James Walker (writer/filmmaker) and Ed Boase have been working together in the film industry for ten years. They co-founded Young Film Academy in 2004.
Recently YFA have been working with the film industry’s education body, Film Education, getting the winners of the Young Film Critic of the Year Award (held at a star studded ceremony at BAFTA) behind the camera in their schools.[8]
Regularly Young Film Academy undertakes charitable work, most notably making documentaries for Channel 4 [9]with Fairbridge – the largest UK charity dealing with young people who are NEET (not in employment, education or training) as part of its inner-city youth schemes. The films are screened at the IMAX Cinema and the Ritzy Cinema with awards presented in 2008 by Deborah Meaden[10] (Dragon’s Den) and Kevin Spacey[11], among others.
As of 2009 Young Film Academy are the workshop providers for CBBC's Me and My Movie competition. Running sixteen day long filmmaking workshops in seven locations around the UK, enabling one thousand young people to complete their first two minute digital film.
As of 2010 Young Film Academy partnered with The Barbican are running holiday film schools[12]
With funding from Unitas YFA work with Youth Offending Teams (YOTS) giving often overlooked and ignored young people a voice and a team project that they can work on. [13]
Young Film Academy provides several workshops including:
Website IOM Today stating that "The academy is seen as an investment in the future of British film."[14]. Young Film Academy's service Movie Parties has also been referenced in TimeOut London stating that "Ed Boase and James Walker have come up with an exciting party concept: kids shoot, edit and screen a film in a single day. Its success boils down to a combination of talent and teamwork." [15]
The Young Film Academy works with a large network of tutors across the UK who teach the practical courses. All tutors are National Film and Television School graduates and are presently working in the film industry.