Film Starts Here

New media outlets like Facebook and Youtube have created unprecedented opportunities for young artists, storytellers and moviemakers to get their work seen by wide audiences. Plenty of high schools and even elementary schools now offer classes in movie and video production, and national organizations like Human Rights Watch and the South by Southwest Festival sponsor competitions for teenage filmmakers.

The Seattle-based National Film Festival for Talented Youth (or "NFFTY") is the largest film festival and support organization for filmmakers age 22 and under. NFFTY's third annual festival takes place this spring in venues around Seattle, and includes more than 100 film screenings, filmmaking panels, and creative opportunities for filmmakers as young as 7 years old. Young filmmakers from around the world come to town with feature-length and short films in narrative, documentary, animation, music video, experimental, and international categories.



Simply browsing through the list of titles and subjects is jawdropping. Some highlights include “Lifestories: The Lost Boys Of Sudan” a story of eight Sudanese refugee children by 14-year old Jared Martin, and the hand-drawn cartoon “Odysseus And The Cyclops” by seven-year-old Emily Salva.

April 24-26 at various cinemas in downtown Seattle. Check here for full schedules.