Young Film Critics 2023
09 February 2023
2023 marked the 24th edition of the IFFR Trainee Project for Young Film Critics. IFFR offered five young (under 30 years), motivated and talented film critics from outside The Netherlands a chance to get acquainted with the festival and the cinema of the world.
Meet the Young Film Critics 2023
The Trainee Project for Young Film Critics was created in 1998, motivated by the fact that young and upcoming film critics get fewer opportunities to explore this range of cinema and festivals, like IFFR, that present it. The main objectives of the Trainee Project are the active support of film criticism, the promotion of coverage on independent filmmaking and assisting talented young film critics with developing their careers.
The selected candidates for the 2023 edition already participated in the online edition of 2021, this year they finally got the chance to experience the physical festival in Rotterdam. Their names are Alonso Aguilar from Costa Rica, Łukasz Mańkowski from Poland, Madeleine Collier from The United States and Ren Scateni from The United Kingdom. Finally, a new and very welcome addition to the group this year was Kyrylo Pyshchykov from Ukraine.
As part of the Young Film Critics programme, they participated in workshops hosted by industry professionals Dana Linssen (NRC), Jan Pieter Ekker (Parool) and Bart Versteirt (photogénies). Furthermore, they discussed film criticism and other topics with professionals in intimate expert sessions, hosted by Neil Young (Screen Daily), Anna Smith (Girls on Film podcast), Rafa Sales Ross (Freelance film journalist, Monique Levine (DDA pr agency), Ben Nicholson (The Film Verdict), Yoanna Pavlova (Festivalists & YFC alumnus) and Evgeny Gusyatinskiy (IFFR programmer & YFC alumnus).
In return, the young film critics were given several assignments they had to complete before and during the festival. Their first assignment was a collective video essay on Mascotte by Remy van Heugten, that they had to create as part of the Critics’ Choice programme. Also, they brought back a single edition of the Daily Tiger for which they all wrote a piece on their interpretation of EO by Jerzy Skolimowski, featured in a physical newspaper distributed over all festival locations. Another assignment was the moderation of Q&As and a talk with filmmakers, including the Critics’ Choice Talk. Lastly, they worked on a short film review published by international film review platform The Film Verdict. You can read those here and here.
