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NFFTY Films Show Worldwide Trends As Young Filmmakers Become The Voice Of A Generation – We Are Movie Geeks

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NFFTY Films Show Worldwide Trends As Young Filmmakers Become The Voice Of A Generation

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The largest youth film festival in the world, the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) received nearly 700 entries into the 2012 Festival, which will be held April 26-29, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. Films have been submitted by filmmakers 22 and under, from 40 states and 22 countries. The filmmakers who submitted this year represent a cross-section of backgrounds and ages, with the youngest filmmaker being seven-years-old.

Now in its sixth year, NFFTY has continued to grow year-after-year. Festival programmers are also exposed to insights about the voice and stories of this generation. This year, NFFTY is seeing similar story content about love, teen angst and coming of age and then darker subject matter about war, suicide and loss of hope, likely a reflection of the current state of the world. “What amazes me every year is how closely connected and similar the youth of the world really are. Despite cultural and geographic differences, we see similarities in the stories these young filmmakers tell,” comments NFFTY Artistic Director, Jesse Harris.

NFFTY is also seeing a trend in an increased number of female directors. Nearly 30 percent of the submissions were from female directors, well above the film industry average. “In Hollywood, female directors account for less than 10 percent, at NFFTY we see 30 percent and more every year. Hopefully NFFTY is helping to set a trend that will soon spread throughout Hollywood,” said Harris.

A sample of countries NFFTY received submissions from this year include: Armenia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, India, Singapore, South Korea and more. After making the final selections, NFFTY expects to screen more than 200 films at the festival in April. Last year, NFFTY drew more than 7,000 in attendance. The full schedule of films and tickets will go live on NFFTY.org in mid March.

In addition to the Festival, NFFTY is hosting the first ever Future of Film Expo in partnership with the Next Fifty. The Expo runs April 27-28, 2012 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. This event is free, open to the public and will have exclusive panels on the newest trends in film technology, music in the film industry and navigating the film school system, as well as, behind the scenes with independent film heavyweights, and more from industry experts. There will be an ongoing Film 101 interactive experience, and the Xbox 360® Lounge will feature workshops, roundtable discussions, demos and networking. Plus opportunities to hang out and play with Kinect for Xbox 360® and experience the latest in Xbox LIVE® entertainment.

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