Coordinated by Kinodvor’s Young Audiences Programme, three youngsters usually take a trip to Laon, France, where they together with a teacher take part at the Festival Ciné-Jeune de l’Aisne as members of the International Young Jury. Due to restrictions this year’s edition took place online and the students were watching films and debating from their homes.
The International Young Jury, which awards the Grand Prix of the festival, consists beside the Slovenes of three local French and three German students, the former selected by the German partner festival Schlingel for Children and Young Audience. This year there were all together ten members of the International Young Jury, from Slovenia Leon Cvetković (Pionirski dom), Zara Čater and Iza Napotnik, together with their teacher Nives Syed Mihelič (Elementary School Ledina).
In the course of the three days they watched three competition programmes of short films in the sections age 11+ and 13+, all together a rich programme of 17 short films. At the end of every competition programme the jury members met online and discussed the positive and negative perspectives of the films, highlighting what they do and do not like. After three days of intense discussions they selected the short film Beauty Boys by young French director Florent Gouëlou to win the festival’s Grand Prix. The film brings the story of two boys in the middle of the French countryside, where they put on a drag show. The film offers an important message of accepting oneself and not to be afraid of otherness. The jury was impressed by the originality of the story, the direction of actors and the message.
The video of the award ceremony is available here.
For the members of the Young International Jury this was a great experience, not only because of the film programme and the deep, structured discussions that followed. The experience also offered an enriching cultural and language exchange, with an opportunity to meet peers from different parts of Europe.
The festival’s catalogue (pdf) is available here.