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- Please note - entries for the Time to Inspire Storyboard Competition are now closed. The shortlist will be announced in due course. Original article continues below.
Do you know any inspired young filmmakers who have a story idea for a short film and would like to win the chance to get it made? As a group, have they a story to tell that could inspire others? If so, support them to enter our Time to Inspire storyboard competition, brought to you in partnership with world-renowned Swiss watchmaker Swatch.
Part of our Every Child a Filmmaker initiative, this educational and exciting competition aims to engage and help young people to develop their creative skills and imaginations by designing a storyboard based on what inspires them - something that is unique to each young person.
The competition is open to groups of school students aged 13-19 from across the UK. The aim is simple: submit a storyboard for a short film (max film length of 2.5 minutes), and Into Film will support one winning group, made up of 5-10 young people, to bring their inspirational storyboard to life as a completed short film. The competition opens on Tuesday 5 March 2024. Entries can be submitted via post (and must be received by Thursday 18 April 2024), or via email (when the deadline is Sunday 21 April 2024).
If you are or know a young person who has an idea for a storyboard for this competition who doesn't have an existing team, did you know we can help them develop a team as part of the competition process. Please get in touch and we can support. Please contact the competition team.
Download the entry form
Time to Inspire
We are on the lookout for talented young people aged 13-19 from across the UK who have an inspiring story they'd like to share. We want to showcase the positive impact young filmmakers can have by using their films to inspire future generations to aspire, be empowered, and be the changemakers of tomorrow.
We firmly believe that young people can make a difference; as the next generation of thinkers, doers, and filmmakers, they have the power to change and shape the world. What inspires them? Who inspires them? Do they have a passion to improve themselves? How would they inspire others? Are they inspired to help their community? We want to bring these passions to life and share their stories of inspiration.
Their Time to Inspire storyboard can highlight inspiring people or places, break boundaries and stereotypes, show personal challenges they have overcome, or anything else that inspires them. We will be looking for creativity, clarity of vision, how the storyboard responds to the theme, and how well it will translate to the screen. The winning storyboard will be produced into a short film (must be a U classification) that will captivate audiences at the 2024 Into Film Festival and inspire a whole generation of young people.
With the help of our friends at Swatch, we want to give every young person the opportunity to bring their ideas to life through film, a familiar medium that they have grown up with and engage with every day. We will support young people to explore their stories and equip them in the art of filmmaking.
This innovative storyboard competition is themed around Inspiration. Swatch has always had a special relationship with art, which has been a source of inspiration for many of its designs. This passion is evident in everything the brand does, from its collaborations with emerging or celebrated artists, designers, architects, and filmmakers, to founding the Swatch Art Peace Hotel artist residence, and partnering with renowned institutions around the globe. Swatch believes art and creativity make the world a better place, and bringing this to people everywhere is an integral part of the brand's philosophy. That makes Swatch the ideal partner with which to run our Time to Inspire competition.
Get your storyboard made
Into Film and Swatch will commission the winning storyboard and produce the short film in collaboration with the winning group of young people. The final film will be graded and rated to be screened over 2,000 times in UK-wide cinemas as part of the Into Film Festival in November 2024, and streamed via Into Film+ and Swatch platforms.
After the competition closes, around 30 young people - chosen from 3-5 shortlisted storyboard entries, with a maximum of 10 young people collaborating per entry - will attend a workshop at the prestigious Netflix office in London to perfect the storyboard process. The workshop will enable the shortlisted young people to develop their skills, including learning how to respond to a creative industry brief, how to work better as a team and how to present their short film ideas to an expert panel. The winning storyboard will be selected by a special panel in London after the workshop day on Saturday 18 May 2024. All reasonable costs for attending the workshop day will be covered, and we will work with the shortlisted groups to accommodate access needs to enable groups to participate fully.
Thanks to generous partners such as Swatch, our Every Child a Filmmaker initiative is able to support and enable young people from across the UK to experience the transformational power of filmmaking and screen storytelling. The project will enable under-served children and young people to work closely with professionals to learn the creative and technical filmmaking skills they need to tell their stories, bringing new perspectives and unheard voices to the screen. In this competition, the focus is on the pre-production stage of the storyboard element.
The winning entry...
The winning group will work with Into Film and a professional production company to make the winning storyboard into a film during June 2024. We anticipate that the winning group will need to commit to about 20 hours in total, the bulk of which will take place between 15-23 June, with some shorter planning sessions from 1-14 June. Sessions may take place during school hours, after school and/or at weekends.
We will work with the winners to plan this schedule and will cover reasonable travel costs, being as flexible as possible. The sessions will happen at a location that suits the winning group. The winner will need to be available for communication with Into Film and the production company in order to sign off the finished film during July 2024.
The final film will be graded and rated to be screened over 2,000 times in UK-wide cinemas as part of the Into Film Festival in November 2024, and streamed via Into Film+ and Swatch platforms.
How to enter
Are you inspired to enter? Whether your learners have an existing storyboard scoped, or a fresh idea yet to be put to paper, all are welcome and encouraged.
Use the 'About Our Film', 'Entrant Details' and 'Time to Inspire storyboard competition' sheets in the entry form to tell us about the film you'd like to make. Your entry must include all THREE of these sheets and meet the criteria listed to be considered. We accept postal or emailed entries. The guidance resource provides useful advice and tips on the storyboarding process to help you begin.
Postal entries
You can post your entry to Time to Inspire Storyboard Competition, FREEPOST RTAE-BAZG-CSZZ, Into Film, 31 Islington Green, London N1 8DU. Postal entries must be received by Thursday 18 April 2024 (23:59).
Email entries
Email a photograph or scanned copy of your entry to entries@intofilm.org with the subject line ‘Time to Inspire Storyboard Competition'. Emailed entries must be received by Sunday 21 April 2024 (23:59).
All entries must be submitted by an authorised adult (aged 18+) and must also include the authorised adult's name, email address and stated permission for all young people to enter.
Entries must also include a group name and their county/location, as well as each young person's first name, age and school/organisation name, where applicable.
Any entry that does not follow these guidelines will be void. Terms and conditions apply.
Please note: We're looking for live-action films, so no animations, please.
Download the entry form
More about Every Child A Filmmaker
Every Child a Filmmaker is a manifesto and commitment to give every young person the opportunity to bring their ideas to life through film, a familiar medium that they have grown up with and engage with every day.
The Every Child A Filmmaker Fund awards young people and youth groups across the UK via a range of specialist partners, enabling them to gain short film production expertise and, at the same time, build valuable life skills to support their futures.
We want to bring the screen industries, educators and parents/carers on this journey so that all children and young people, regardless of where they live, their backgrounds or the challenges they face in their lives, have the opportunity to tell their story through film.
More about Swatch
Positive provocation and joie de vivre made in Switzerland: since its founding in 1983, Swatch has shaken up the watch industry. Thanks to its striking designs that always reflect the zeitgeist, Swatch is one of the leading watch manufacturers and most sought-after brands in the world and has always stayed true to itself. The company surprises again and again, whether it be with regularly released new models or special collections. The revolutionary way in which Swatch thinks and acts has always been evident with its early involvement in action sports, such as BMX, skateboarding and surfing. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai embodies the brand's love of art and brings together artists from around the world.
Swatch
Swatch is a proud partner of Into Film and the Every Child a Filmmaker initiative.
