Buckinghamshire Council and Pinewood Studios are excited to invite selected schools, with a high number of pupils residing within the key Opportunity Bucks wards, to take part in an exciting new Opportunity Bucks Schools’ Short Film Competition.

This is a fantastic opportunity for your students to showcase their creativity and develop key skills. We hope that taking part will spark your pupils’ curiosity around film and TV – one of Buckinghamshire’s largest and fastest growing employment sectors offering many diverse career opportunities - and provide inspiration for the future.

The theme for the films is ‘School Life’. We are hoping to see a wide variety of interpretations of this theme; script, location, creative input, format etc – so there is lots of flexibility to get your pupils’ creative juices flowing and enable teachers to fit this into your existing curriculum.

There are just a few set requirements. Your film must be no longer than 3 minutes long, be made exclusively for this competition and must be scripted, filmed, edited and produced by the pupils themselves. full list of entry requirements and general terms and conditions (SchoolsWeb) 

There are three different age group categories:

• Primary – Years 4/5,
• Secondary – Years 7/8 
• Secondary – Years 9/10

Please visit support for schools (SchoolsWeb) for useful resources and top tips to support your production. The judging criteria (SchoolsWeb) provide guidance as to what the judges will be looking for. The submitted films will be judged against these criteria by a team of experts and Buckinghamshire representatives.

Two staff members from all schools entering the competition will be invited to the Pinewood Studios Futures Festival on Friday 24^th of November 2023 to experience this fantastic careers event and find out more about the competition. A delegation of pupils and teachers from all participating schools will be invited to the Competition Celebration Event at Pinewood Studios on Thursday 23rd of May 2024, where shortlisted films will be shown and winners in each category announced.  

All schools entering the competition will receive:

• A framed certificate of entry for the school.
• A certificate of entry for each pupil involved in the project.
• An invitation for a delegation of up to 10 pupils and teachers to the Opportunity Bucks Schools’ Short Film Competition Celebration Event, during the school day, Thursday 23^rd May 2024
• A Pinewood Studios goody-bag for each of the pupils attending the Celebration Event
• Automatic entry for two teachers to attend the Pinewood Futures Festival careers event in both November 2023 and 2024.

In addition, the winning schools in each age category will also receive:

• A private movie screening at Pinewood Studios, screening both your winning film plus a movie of your pupils’ choice (from a selection offered by Pinewood Studios) for all pupils involved in the project.

Key Dates

• Monday, 20^th November 2023 - Schools that register to take part in the competition before this date will be offered 2 tickets for teachers/members of school staff to attend the Futures Festival at Pinewood Studios on Friday, 24^th November 2023, where they can find out more about careers in the film industry and support for competition entrants. 
• Tuesday, 19^th December 2023– The final date for schools to register to take part in the competition. 
• Spring term 2024 – Schools plan, produce, film and edit their short films. Support from Pinewood Studios and partners.
• Monday, 25^th March 2024 - The finished film must be submitted by WeTransfer by 5.00 p.m., more details are provided in the terms and conditions
• Thursday, 23rd May 2024 - The celebration event will be held at Pinewood Studios, during the school day at 10.00am-12.00pm
• November 2024 – All schools entering the competition will be provided with 2 tickets to the Pinewood Future Festival 2024 

Register to take part in the competition