Olympia Festival for Children and Young people
About this good practice
❖ Problem: stimulate education in countryside, through entertainment & active participation of children/young people. Inaugurated in 1997, triggered interest thanks to free screenings in school yards.
❖Implementation: Public calls for interest (12 calls in 2022) ensuring participation in all festival sections. RWG supports the festival through specific legal tool explicitly targeting cultural development. The festival provides for 4 pillars, each one addressing a specific target group/audience, targeting “Quality cinema promotion for children & young people” with inclusive screenings & events for people with disabilities:
o 1st Pillar: Film Competition: provides for 3 competition sections (national, European, international) with prizes ceremony, each one foreseeing 3 age categories (4–12 years, 3–16 years & 17–20 years).
o 2nd Pillar: “Camera Zizanio”: a European meeting for audiovisual creation by young people consisting of “cinema labs” & “Daily News” action (short videos for the festival daily news). For 2022, 216 films competed made by young people coming from Greece and 52 other countries, including 21 EU MS.
o 3rd Pillar: “School Cinema”: the educational pillar of the festival with film workshops for children & teachers of primary & secondary schools. In 2022 1.575 children & teachers participated in 90 film workshops.
o 4th Pillar: “Creative Ideas Pitching Lab”: activities for the film industry professionals (7 films produced so far and 7 more are prepared).
Resources needed
Apart from its own budget (100.000, €) the festival benefits from regional (RWG 125.000, €) and national funding (Hellenic Ministry of Culture: 150.000, €). It has its own “management body” a local NGO of 12 people permanent staff, that organises the festival and all other activities.
Evidence of success
Final figures from the 2022 edition demonstrate success:
✔ 382 films & youth audiovisual creations
✔ from 76 countries
✔ 60 film workshops attended by >1000 pupils
✔ 20 seminars attended by 700 teachers & pupils
✔ 12 actions for film professionals
✔ >100 venues in RWG
The festival cooperates with the Hellenic Cinematography Centre to setup a digital film platform for schools. It is Member of the European Children's Film Association (ALSO deputy artistic director elected ECFA President).
Potential for learning or transfer
1. Successfully address and involve children & young people in the countryside through free film screenings. The festival moto “kids in front of the screen and the kids behind the camera” motivated young people, transforming a local event into a national success.
2. Innovative approach: the festival is not limited to traditional film screenings & film competition; it also provides for social inclusion through cinema engaging with a variety of actors to expand audience with inclusive screenings for people with disabilities. It created the “Olympia Cinema PsychoEdu” project targeting psycho-educational interventions through cinema; following evaluation & peer-assessment the project will be submitted for approval to the national Institute of Educational Policy.
3. Grass rooted: directly engaging with local communities, including teachers & film professionals, it is strongly supported by locals.
4. Recognition at EU level: it will host the European Centre for Youth Audiovisual Creation.
Further information
26th Olympia Festival
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Good practice owner
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