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Discovery Film Festival Winner

North Lanarkshire’s school pupils have taken Scotland’s top film-making prize for under 18’s at the Discovery Youth Screen Award 2009.

The youngsters from the Lensheads Film School wrote and directed “Backfire”, an explosive short film that portrays how Frankie’s young life is turned upside down when someone asks him a favour that puts him on the wrong side of the law.

Pupils from St Andrew’s HS, Airdrie Academy, St Ambrose HS and St Aidan’s HS were involved in the making of the film, which was selected by an audience vote at a screening of nominated films.

Willie Davidson, who leads North Lanarkshire Council’s filmmaking initiative, he explained:

“There were over 50 submissions to the short film award and the youth jury chose seven for the shortlist.“

"These films were shown at the Discovery Film Festival. The audience – a mix of young people and industry professionals – then voted to choose the winner. It was a close run, but Backfire took the title.”

The Lensheads youth filmmaking group had two films in the shortlist (Backfire and Seaweed) and member Jack Frisky was at the DCA cinema to pick up the award from festival producer Katharine Simpson.

Katharine, from the festival organisers said:

"Backfire immerses you in Frankie's dilemma, and is gripping from start to finish. Congratulations to The Lensheads team for producing such an accomplished film. I look forward to seeing more from this group."

The prize includes the Discovery Youth Screen Award cup and a cheque for £250, which Lensheads have said they are going to invest in developing the screenwriting skills of their young filmmakers.

Jane Liddell, Head of Education Quality and Development, said: "North Lanarkshire Council’s Learning and Leisure Services has a long-term commitment to film education.

“While we have received several awards in the past, the Discovery Award is the most prestigious to date. Special thanks must go to First Light, who provided funding, and to everyone involved with the Lensheads project.”

The Discovery Youth Screen Award is given to the best short film made in Scotland by under 18-year-olds in the past 12 months. It is awarded annually at Discovery - Scotland's leading youth film festival - which screens the best in international film for young audiences and this year welcomed 4000 young people at the DCA Cinema.

Discovery Film Festival Nominations

Two Lensheads films "Backfire" and "Seaweed" have been shortlisted for the Discovery Youth Screen Award 2009. The Discovery Youth Screen Award is presented every year to the best film made in Scotland by filmmakers under 18.

Lenheads Film School 2009

Applications are now closed for this year's Lenheads 2009 Film Schools.

For more information on the Lensheads film courses please click here.

NLC Corporate Awards 2009

The Learning Centre's Mandarin audio learning CD pack has been nominated in this years NLC Corporate Awards for the category of "Life Long Learning.

To assist in the learning of Mandarin, the Learning Centre has developed two audio CDs containing a range of topics from Actions to Weather. Each topic has been recorded as a track so that the listener can select the topic they wish to practice. Each track consists of words or phrases associated with the topic. Each word or phrase is spoken in English followed by the Mandarin twice with sufficient silence in between for the listener to practice saying the word or phrase. A PDF for each topic is available on the CD and can be accessed via a computer. The PDF contains the English, Mandarin and Pinyin for each of the words or phrases. A copy of the Audio CD in MP3 format is also on the CD.

The pack is available for purchase from the Learning and Leisure Service.

Photoshop for Schools

The challenge for traditionally trained educators preparing pupils to work in any sector using “applied art” is huge. To assist them we have created lesson outlines, materials and training that empower teachers to deliver high quality ICT training to pupils using Adobe’s Photoshop. This is a Scottish publication designed with the requirements of the Curriculum for Excellence in mind.

The materials include four introductory tutorials and four advanced project based tutorials (packaging, CD design, book cover, poster). These are delivered via printed magazines and interactive white board notes for staff use and an accompanying CD that includes and printable notes for pupils, lesson/unit outlines & all necessary assets (pictures, templates, logos).

The pack is available for purchase from the Learning and Leisure Service.

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Last Updated: 9 September 2009