Join us for Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days over 7-10 June – an essential event for cinemas looking to inspire and bring in young audiences.
What is Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days?
An online event giving cinema professionals the chance to watch upcoming films for children and young audiences and take part in curated sessions designed to support their young audience development work.
Registration
Registration for this 2021 event is now closed but information about Young Audiences Screening Days 2022 is now available.
Sessions
Jobs that work for young people
If we want young people to make a contribution in cinema, they need sustainable working lives. This session is for employers and hiring managers who want to make their recruitment practices more inclusive, and for young people who want to find employers that match their values. Joined by Louise McAward-White and Ashleigh Hibbins of Fair Museum Jobs, we’ll look at common recruitment practices that exclude great candidates from accessing cinema roles, and best practice that delivers real change. For workers and job seekers, we’ll share how to research an organisation to find an employer that shares your values and aspirations. This practical session is an opportunity to rethink barriers and opportunities in recruitment and beyond.
Why safeguarding matters for every cinema and festival
Safeguarding – protecting the interests of children, young people and vulnerable adults – is an area where every exhibitor should have a clear sense of their responsibilities. Your events and activities should be underpinned by simple, clear and enforceable policies that all your staff can rely on. To launch BFI FAN’s new practical guide to safeguarding, we’ll look at areas where it matters (online and in person), where to go to develop inexpensive policies and access training, and how to embed the work into your organisation so it makes a practical difference. Led by BFI FAN Young Audiences Manager Moira McVean, you’ll hear from organisations that have developed effective policies and practice by putting safeguarding concerns at the heart of what they do.
Young people on boards: why it matters for your organisation
Young people can be dynamic and committed stakeholders in your organisation and programming. As unheard and underrepresented voices, young leaders have a diversity of skills and experience that can feed into every level of your organisation. Join Rising Arts Agency to explore how younger people can play a strategic role in guiding organisations to think differently about their cultural offer and purpose.
What we learned about young audiences from online screenings
Whether you plan to continue online screenings or go purely IRL in the future, the last eighteen months have opened our eyes to the realities of how young audiences want to interact with your venue as a streamer. In this session, you’ll hear from three groups who have taken their young engagement work online, giving you practical insights into what it takes to reach new audiences digitally.
Giving young people an authentic voice in your venue
Work for young people succeeds best when it is rooted in young people’s ideas and authentic voice. How do cinemas make sure the platform young people get in your venue is what they want – not what fits with funders or what you think young people want? We’ll hear from three case studies that got it right, with new approaches to giving young people power to change their venues.
How does Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days work?
Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days incorporates virtual film screenings alongside sessions exploring key issues around young audience development. It’ll begin with film screenings on the evening of Monday 7 June, with further films and sessions running over the course of the next three days.
When you’ve booked your pass, you’ll receive an automated email confirming your booking. If we have any queries about your eligibility, we’ll drop you a line. As we confirm films and sessions, details will be posted on this page. Before the event, we’ll send you full event details including the final schedule, plus instructions on how to sign up for individual sessions and access our online platform.
Please note:
- Passes are not transferable and the virtual platform restricts concurrent streams, so every viewer must have their own pass.
- Streaming is only available within the UK.
- You can watch on a laptop, tablet (e.g. iPad), Chromecast and Airplay, HDMI output cable from your device and your phone. However, please note that you can’t currently watch on devices with a Linux or Chrome based operating system (e.g. Chromebooks).
- There are no restrictions on number of attendees per organisation, but all attendees must be eligible for the event.
Am I eligible?
Screening Days is for anyone who works or volunteers in a space whose primary purpose is showing films – such as cinemas, film festivals, mixed arts venues, film societies and community cinemas – and makes a direct contribution to selecting films and attracting audiences for them. We welcome programmers (including young film programmers), audience development and marketing staff and others; we also welcome freelancers working in film exhibition.
If you’re in any doubt about your eligibility, just email us.
Bursaries
If you need financial assistance to attend Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days, your regional Film Hub may be able to help in the form of bursaries towards pass fees for members (see links below). If your organisation is not yet a Hub member, it is usually easy to register quickly and it’s free.
If you are unable to get support from your Hub or need further/other support to attend, please email us.
Why do you run Screening Days?
Good question! We produce Screening Days for a few key reasons, best summarised as: ‘To help UK cinemas better serve all their possible audiences’. We focus the events on screenings and discussion because:
- We want cinemas across the UK to be able to make informed decisions about the films they programme, so audiences can see the best titles from around the world. That’s hard if you haven’t actually been able to watch the films and can’t afford to rely on expensive festival trips or distributor marketing materials.
- We think independent cinemas are best when their programming stands out. Screening Days aims to support ambition in cinema programming and sustainability.
- We want to have useful conversations about what it’ll take to build a stronger independent cinema sector. Gathering people in the sector together helps us identify common problems and find ways to solve them.
- We also want to support independent distributors by helping their films find an audience in independent cinemas.
What do we want to achieve?
- Cinemas more regularly choosing films in our programme of independent British and world cinema titles and expanding the types of films they show.
- Cinemas attracting a wider range of people to those films.
- Attendees gaining a wider professional network and feeling part of a community.
- A wider group of people feeling that they can participate in film exhibition.
- Independent distributors feeling they’re able to play their films more widely from having been included in the programme.
FAQ
I don't work in film exhibition, can I still attend?
No, the event is only open to those working or volunteering in film exhibition organisations such as cinemas, film festivals, mixed arts venues, film societies and community cinemas. If you are in any doubt about your eligibility, please email us.
What devices can I watch films on?
We’ve selected a technology partner that offers a lot of flexibility on how you can watch the films. You can watch on a laptop, tablet (e.g. iPad), Chromecast and Airplay, HDMI output cable from your device and your phone (but David Lynch will be silently judging you). However, please note that you can’t currently watch on devices with a Linux or Chrome based operating system (e.g., Chromebooks). In general, it’s a good idea to test your set up before streaming the films – we’ll remind you of this in advance.
How accessible is the event?
We aim to offer optional caption subtitles on all films (subject to availability and timelines). We’ve taken this action to support delegates, highlight the availability of caption subtitles on particular films and encourage exhibitors to consider screening more films with caption subtitling.
In addition, we will also offer captioning in sessions as required.
If you have any other queries about event accessibility, please contact us.
Will you be returning to physical Screening Days events?
Yes, we aim to return to cinemas later this year. We hope running online events makes Screening Days more accessible to more people across the UK, and will continue to provide an online element in our ongoing offer. However, we also look forward to returning to and supporting independent cinemas in person.
Can I talk about the films I see at Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days?
There’ll be plenty of chances to discuss films with other attendees during the event. However, due to our agreements with distributors, it’s important not to discuss the films you see at the event in online spaces (e.g. social media, blogs), even if your comments are positive and even if the film has already screened elsewhere. If you’d like to talk about the event in general on social media, though, please do! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the event hashtag #ScreeningDays.
Piracy
We take piracy very seriously. Please do not record, copy, share or stream films on our platform, which are provided only for film exhibition professionals that meet the entry criteria. We have advanced security measures in place including forensic watermarking that will allow us to prevent and track piracy. If you are found to be in breach of these terms, we will take any and all legal measures available.
How do you select films for Virtual Young Audiences Screening Days?
For this event, we’ll source films for children and young audiences aged 16-30, bringing you a selection of the best independent titles coming into distribution so you’re empowered to make informed choices for your upcoming programming. Alongside screenings, you’ll also be able to listen to expert speakers and take part in sessions exploring best practice young audience development, programming and cinema marketing for children and young people.
Why can’t you release the schedule earlier?
We finalise the schedule as quickly as possible so you can plan ahead. Unfortunately, we are limited in how far in advance we can do so, as we often receive final confirmations of films and sessions quite close to the event. The event will begin with film screenings on the evening of Monday 7 June with further films and sessions running throughout Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 June.
Advisory Group
To give us fresh eyes on Screening Days and help us find ways to renew, improve and open up the events going forward, we have created an advisory group.
We are delighted to be joined by writer and organiser So Mayer (Raising Films, Club des Femmes), film curator and programmer Jonathan Ali and Cinema Access Coordinator Midnight Memphis. They will be working with us to advise on and develop our specialised events for a year, before passing this work to another group of advisors. Click here for full details.
If you have any comments or ideas you’d like the group to consider, submit them here.
Terms and conditions
ICO Screening Days is an industry event for programmers, organisers, audience developers, education officers or marketers from cinemas, mixed arts venues, film societies, film festivals and any other venue whose primary purpose is exhibition of films to the public. Please note passes are strictly non-transferable.
Code of conduct
Whether on or offline, we want our events to be fun, inclusive spaces for film professionals. We expect people attending and working at them to maintain this code of conduct so that they stay that way. Harassment and bullying have no place at ICO events.
Examples of inappropriate behaviours that contravene our code of conduct include offensive comments, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of events, aggressive behaviour, inappropriate physical contact and unwelcome sexual attention.
If someone behaves inappropriately towards you or you witness something inappropriate, please report it to a member of ICO staff or email us. Your complaint will be treated with discretion. We are happy to help and can help report inappropriate behaviour to the authorities where necessary or address the problem ourselves where more appropriate. We reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone who does not comply with our code of conduct. This code of conduct applies both in person and online.
If you would like to speak to an independent organisation about an issue, the Film and TV Charity have a free and confidential 24-hour helpline available on 0800 054 00 00.
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