Young Critics Jury

It's a crash course in how to watch, critique and understand techniques of moviemaking from Hollywood feature length films to the shortest student work.

The California Film Institute held its sixth annual Young Critics Jury for young adults (ages 13-18) July 8-10, 2008. This three-day intensive course can prepare teens for a career or it can be used as a unique exercise in critical thinking. Film professionals from many fields including production, animation, film criticism, screenwriting, special effects, stunts, film programming, art design, cinematography, and acting, will spend time and speak with course participants about the craft of filmmaking in an intimate seminar atmosphere at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center.

The week after the three-day intensive course, 4 graduates (chosen during the course) judged and curated the entries for the 2008 Mill Valley Film Festival's annual program of international youth-produced films. We had almost 100 youth films submitted from the US, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico and Germany.

Just some of the speakers/mentors at Young Critics Juries past: Andrew Stanton, Pixar's Academy Award®-winning director/writer of Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Wall-e; Kevin Lima, director of Enchanted; Academy Award-nominated documentary director Bill Jersey; Craig Barron, film historian and visual effects supervisor from Matte World); Lucasfilm visioneer Sprague Anderson; Eddie Muller, film noir historian and author; Hiro Narita, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning cinematographer; veteran location scout Rory Enke; Academy Award and Emmy Award®-winning director John Korty; stuntwoman Jean Mahlani; silent film music composer Bruce Loeb; author and critics Judy Stone and Michael Fox; avant-garde filmmaker and master archivist Craig Baldwin; Sundance Film Festival award winning writer/director Finn Taylor; Academy Award-winning director/writer Jeff Brown; Sundance Grand Winner and Academy Award nominee filmmaker Connie Field; Award winning sound and picture editors Dennnie Thorpe and Vivien Hllgrove.