The European Film Academy (EFA) has announced that 40 countries will be participating in the EFA Young Audience Award 2020; among them, Luxembourg will once again participate in partnership with the Luxembourg City Film Festival (LuxFilmFest).
On 26 April 2020, the European Film Academy will invite young people aged 12 to 14 from 69 cities across Europe to join the international jury to view the three nominated films and vote for the winner of the Young Audience Award (YAA) 2020. The films will then be available as Video-on-Demand for the general public throughout Europe.
The three nominated films for the 9th EFA YAA are:
- My Brother Chases Dinosaurs ("Mio Fratello Rincorre I Dinosauri"), an Italian-Spanish production directed by Stefano Cipani, written by Fabio Bonifacci and Giacomo Mazzariol and produced by Isabella Cocuzza, Arturo Paglia and Antonia Nava;
- My Extraordinary Summer with Tess ("Mijn Bijzonder Rare Week met Tess"), a Dutch-German production directed by Steven Wouterlood, written by Laura van Dijk and produced by Joram Willink, Piet-Harm Sterk and Marcel Lenz;
- Rocca Changes the World (Rocca Verändert die Welt), a German production directed by Katja Benrath, written by Hilly Martinek and produced by Tobias Rosen, Steffi Ackermann and Willi Geike.
The nominations were again chosen according to a two-step procedure: an international committee composed of EFA Board member Vanessa Henneman (Netherlands) and experts Gonçalo Galvão Teles (director / Portugal), Jacek Rembiś (screenwriter / Poland), Joanna Van Der Meer (British Film Institute / United Kingdom) and Nora Lakos (Children's Film Academy / Hungary, ECFA representative) pre-selected six films. A jury made up of former YAA participants aged 13 to 14, Edoardo from Turin (Italy), Luna from Vienna (Austria), Raluca de Cluj (Romania), Rannveig from Reykjavik (Iceland) and Štefan de Izola (Slovenia), then watched the six films and determined the three nominations.
On 26 April, the three nominated films will be screened simultaneously to audiences aged 12 to 14 in the 40 participating countries (including Luxembourg). Under the guidance of experienced film teachers, young participants can discuss and exchange their points of view on the films and connect with their peers across Europe. Jury spokespersons will then transmit the national results via a live video conference in Erfurt (Germany) where the winner will be announced during a live award ceremony on yaa.europeanfilmawards.eu.
Together with the EFA partner for this project, Under The Milky Way, and with the support of the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe, the initiative aims to make films nominated for YAA available in all European territories, subtitled in 30 European languages, right after the event on various Video-on-Demand platforms such as Amazon, Google Play, iTunes and Pantaflix, on the regional platform of the Balkans' Cinesquare, as well as on local platforms such as Filmin. YAA films from previous editions are already accessible across Europe thanks to this initiative. Anyone who is unable to participate in the EFA Young Audience Award event (or who are simply looking for quality films) can already watch the nominated films online.
The EFA Young Audience Award is organised and presented by the European Cinema Academy and EFA Productions, with the support of the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and Creative Europe MEDIA. The National Young Audience Prize events are organised with the support of the respective national partners; in Luxembourg, the event is organised with the Luxembourg City Film Festival. A complete list of national partners is available at https://yaa.europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/yaa-award.
