Following the inaugural standing-room-only RE-Generation International Youth Film Festival (RIYF Fest) event that received a thunderous ovation at the Melbourne Immigration Museum in August ‘22 (and which was part of the larger RE-Generation Festival 1-day event hosted by Moral Fairground), the RE-Generation International Youth Film Festival, an initiative of the School Broadcasting Network (SBN), is now going virtual, and global. The virtual RIYF Fest will screen an extended curation beyond the initial selection of 17 films, of over 55 heart-warming and thought-provoking short films for the whole family to enjoy – including live-action, animation and mini-documentaries.
The virtual event will include Q&A’s and workshops with industry professionals and filmmakers from around the world, and SBN is excited to announce that the live premiere, which is proudly sponsored by Eco Voice and Vass Productions, will be held at the Alex Theatre in St Kilda on Friday 9th December ’22. The premiere will open with a storytelling on stage of ‘An Antechinus in the Attic’ from multi-award-winning theatre director, and the School Broadcasting Network’s National Patron of the Arts, Gary Young OAM (director of smash hits such as Les Misérables, Mama Mia, Singing in the Rain, Jesus Christ Superstar and Wombat Stew to name just a few!) and incudes a special curation of mainly animated films, all suitable for children aged 8 and under. This opening session will be followed by another 3 general audience sessions of award-winning short films, produced by both professional and emerging young filmmakers from all over the world.
Fifteen-year-old director, Ivy Tucker from Melbourne, will give a short Q&A about her award-winning documentary Agricola 1707, and the premiere will conclude with the music video Mother Earth, a joyous celebration of life on Earth from 2-time Grammy-winning composer, Ricky Kej,
The core aim of the RE-Generation International Youth Film Virtual Festival is to wrap up the last challenging 3 years, with a really joyous and uplifting event for young people, to lead them into 2023 as the Resilient and Empowered Generation – the RE-Generation – ready to face the coming year with a sense of motivation and positivity.
The RIYF Fest is a collaborative production of the School Broadcasting Network Inc (SBN, Melbourne, Aust), LA International Children’s Film Festival (LAICFF Los Angeles, USA) ), and One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest (OEYFC Chicago, USA)
and is a celebration of award-winning short films that inspire resilience, joy, empowerment and hope, such as: Star Thief (Julia Madeline Stella, Australia) My Grandma Matilde (Miguel Anaya Borja, Mexico), Milk (Celia Jaspers, New Zealand), Marmalade (Radostina Neykova, Bulgaria), Spell of the West (Samantha Lane, USA), The Iron Farmer (Wei-Jhih Chen, Korea), Oyasumi – Lullaby of Flame (Arisa Wakami, Japan) Amazing Adventures of Awesome, (Allison Brownmore, UK), Cracked (Mahmut Tas, Turkey), First Love (Beatrice Woo & Ashley Finch, Canada), Bad Bugs (Bryn Wright, USA) The Greenburger Challenge (Adam Joel, USA) and the winning student films from the 2022 RIYFF Short Film Competition sponsored by Adobe: The Power of 5 (Spensley Street Primary School, Australia) and Change is Now (Kamo High School, New Zealand). Plus, included in the curation is a short showreel from RIYFF Australian Ambassador Radheya Jegatheva, Australia’s most selected and awarded young animator and filmmaker, who has garnered over 900 selections and 500 awards for his films.
The 3-day virtual festival includes free online workshops and Q&A’s for schools and general admission such as: ‘Animation 101’ with Radheya Jegatheva (Perth), ‘Simple Adobe Premiere Rush Video Editing’ with Dr Tim Kitchen (Melbourne), Claymation with Bryn Wright (USA), ‘Dani-Mation’ with Dani Bowman (USA) and ‘Short Film Production on Minimal Budget’ with Celia Jaspers (NZ). The One Earth Young Filmmakers Academy is also making their suite of on-demand film production workshop available, exclusively free of charge, to rural, remote, indigenous and home-schooled students for the 3 days of the virtual festival, which is an exciting opportunity for budding young filmmakers to access professional online workshops designed for students aged 8 – 15 years.
Tickets for the premiere at the Alex Theatre https://alextheatre.org.au can be purchased by CLICKING HERE
All general admission sessions include a combination of short animated, live-action and documentary films suitable for the whole family, with running times between 45 – 85 minutes.
For more information about workshops and the virtual program visit tinyurl.com/RIYFF22
RIYFF New Zealand Ambassador Celia Jasper, producer of the multi-awarded short film Milk says: “I’m absolutely delighted to be the NZ Ambassador for this Festival. It’s so wonderful to see this many emerging and professional filmmakers coming together with the aim of inspiring resilience, empowerment and hope for young people all over the world, through this fabulous collection of uplifting and powerful short films.”
