OFF Youth Experience is the latest program of the Telemach Youth Film Festival Sarajevo and part of the “Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans” (CC4WBs) project, funded by the European Union. Based on the principles and inspired by the globally renowned Giffoni Film Festival, OFF Youth Experience (OFF_YE) aims to gather young film enthusiasts and young filmmakers from the region. Over the course of seven days, participants will have the opportunity to watch films, exchange opinions, and socialize with young people from the region. Participation in this Telemach Youth Film Festival program not only provides an opportunity to develop film knowledge but also offers the best and most active individuals the chance to participate and engage in exchanges at regional and European partner festivals of Telemach OFF.
The seven-day program brings short film and feature film screenings for participants, followed by opportunities to exchange opinions with program leaders and other participants, as well as film professionals. The uniqueness of the program lies in the fact that all participants in the OFF_YE program also act as members of the youth jury for the Festival’s selections OFF Shorts and Wolf Competition. This includes watching both short and feature films, attending panel and Q&A programs, as well as formal and informal social events. In addition to film screenings, participants will attend OFF YE Talks programs with experts from all over the region and Europe, and they will be using the given themes to create audiovisual materials, showcasing their views and approaches through the program OFF YE Workshops.
The “Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans” (CC4WBs) project, funded by the European Union, is focused on fostering dialogue in the Western Balkans by enhancing the cultural and creative sectors for increased socio-economic impact. Over a 48-month period, the CC4WBs project aims to improve the performance of the cultural and creative sectors in order to enhance skills, knowledge, access to financial aid to increase competitiveness and sustain co-production and circulation of goods and services in the Western Balkans.”
Following the first three days of the program, which will feature OFF YE Talks together with other mentioned activities, the participants will have three days to create materials themselves. Additionally, they will have continuous support from Milan Stojanović who represents the main expert that will discuss the ideas and support the filming of participant’s ideas.
The participants will be split into multiple groups and through collaborative work will cover one or two of four topics represented in the OFF YE Talks in an audiovisual form of their choice. For example, these audiovisual materials can be short cinematics, videos containing one or more scenes, or any type of audiovisual form that the participants might think would be the best way to showcase their opinions and creative ways to strike these topics.
Following the workshops and the filming across the three days, the work of each group with presented on the big screen at the main location of the Festival on the last day of the Festival. Coordinators of the program together with the appointed expert will be judging and evaluating the presented work, and the best project will be chosen. The group that presented the best project will have a chance to further engage with the Festival team expanding their filmmaking experience through different activities in the future.