Aspiring young creatives in the UAE now have the perfect opportunity to learn the intricacies of filmmaking and allied arts at the much-awaited 8th edition of the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF).

Organised by FUNN – the Sharjah-based organisation dedicated to promoting and supporting media arts learning among children and youth, SIFF 2021 has opened registrations for over 26 expert-led workshopsgeared to meet the artistic ambitions of the young generation and train them to excel in new media arts.

The workshops, like the entire festival, will be held virtually from 10^thOctober to ensure everyone’s safety and well-being. Separate sessions will be offered to children at the ‘Kids Studio’ and to the youth at the ‘Youth Studio’, from October 11 – 15. The workshops for both categories have been split across morning and evening time slots to enable maximum participation.

All workshops will be of 50-minute duration. The entire list of sessions, including dates and timings, is available at: www.siff.ae

Kids Studio

SIFF is organising a wide range of programmes for children as part of the eighth edition. The sessions range from lessons in the intricacies of script writing to learning frame-by-frame animation.

Children will gain basic photography skills from professional photographers, create stories via mobile phones, as well as grasp the fundamentals of sketching,besides learning to take great food pictures.

For the more ambitious kids, there are workshops on stop-motion animation, creating animated cartoon GIFs, Panorama andAbstract Photography, including expert sessions on directing as well as producing films.

The Child Safety Department will present two sessions highlighting child safety in public spaces and other situations.

The session facilitators include reputed entities such as Oman Film & Theatre Society, Emirates Schools Establishment, Sharjah Education Council, Creative Lab and Capture LLC, as well as expert trainers like FadiSyriani and Sahar Abdalla (animation), Ali Kashwani (art), social media expert Fatima Al Harthi, and professional photographers Fatima Omar and Salem Al Kaabi.

Youth Studio

SIFF’s carefully curated programme for youth include several specialised sessions geared towards developing the basic skills of youth in media arts.

One of the most sought-after animation experts, Thomas Kutschera, will helm a workshop on using the 3D Maya software to create primitives as well as build complicated models and animate them seamlessly.

Fans of Majid TV’s Fateen Universe will not only get an exclusive sneak peek into the next season of FateenAdventures, they will also learn how to create engaging animated characters to tell their stories via an interactive session.

An engaging session by Creative Lab on shaping a credible screenplay will include an expert-led group activity. Emirates Schools Establishment will headline three exciting workshops on script-writing, directing and acting – that will set participants on the fast track to making their own films.

Nikon, an educational sponsor of SIFF, will showcase several practical photography workshops that will give attendees tips on the basics of taking professional pictures; teach them to ‘paint with light’ – manipulating lighting to capture artistic shots; a primer on perspective photography as well as basic videography; and a truly exciting session on time-lapse videography.