Film made by UK teenagers to be shown before every screening at this month’s National Youth Film Festival.

Film Nation UK has unveiled an anti-piracy short that will be shown before every screening at the first National Youth Film Festival (Oct 21 to Nov 8).

The short film will play before more than 1,000 screenings at cinemas across the UK and will be seen by around 250,000 young people.

It was created by indie My Pockets, working with a group of 14-year-olds, with Film Nation for the Industry Trust – a consumer education body promoting the value of copyright and creativity.

Sam Wainstein, communications director at FilmClub, said: “We hope the experience of those attending the festival will begin a lifelong passion for film and we therefore felt it important to include an IP message within the context of the Festival - hence this youth-made-film was created.

“The film kicks of an integrated education campaign that Film Nation UK will be running in collaboration with the Industry Trust which will include a range of activities including curriculum linked resources and creative competitions.”

The film was made by a group of ten 14-year-olds at Wey Valley School and Sports College, Weymouth Dorset.

It was developed out of recorded conversations around the issues of copyright. The teenagers edited the audio of those conversations into a script; designed and made the puppets; and filmed and edited the film.

As previously announced, the opening film will be The Selfish Giant on Oct 21 that includes a satellite link up from the National Media Museum (in Bradford, where the film is set) in which director Clio Barnard and young actors Shaun Thomas and Conner Chapman will take part in a Q&A that will be be screened at multiple venues).

Liz Bales, director general of the Industry Trust for IP Awareness said:”Inspiring young people to adopt legal behaviour and informing them where they can do so remains at the heart of our education strategy. 

“Giving school children a role to play in the production process and using their voices has enabled us to create a piece of content that articulates the issue of film piracy in an open an honest way that we hope will resonate with their peers. 

“It brings to life the craft and hard work that goes into creating films and TV and has been created to point more young viewers to FindAnyFilm, as a gateway to films across all formats, all above board and all in one place.”