The curtains have closed on the 25th Anniversary edition of Leeds Young Film Festival and we’re incredibly proud of all the young people and families who took part in this year's activities. Our mission was to spark the imaginations of young people and connect them to cinema in new ways and potential help nurture the filmmakers of tomorrow.
LYFF 2024 saw over 3,500 people take part in the festival, enjoying a showcase of family friendly films that spanned different countries, cultures and genres. From animated wonders that captivated the imaginations of our youngest viewers, family classics that could be shared between generations and new family films that included several UK and Northern Premieres, the festival was a celebration of film's power to inspire young people.
We’re also happy to announce the success of Movie Club - returning for its second year and this time in collaboration with Screen Yorkshire who facilitated the workshops and secured fantastic industry mentors to connect with our young audiences; a link we wish to strengthen in the future, supporting other programmes designed for older youths, including the Beyond Brontes programme.
Our LYFF on Tour Programme was also a success, taking a range of feature films and short film packages to some of our partner venues including Eureka! The National Children's Museum in Halifax, Stockroom Cinema in Keighley and Kirkgate Market in Leeds City Centre. Over 1500 people watched shorts and features at these venues, helping bring the festival experience to new families and making our programme easier than ever to access.
We also teamed up with StoryFutures to deliver a programme of VR experiences for families and young people that took place at Leeds City Museum, which saw close to 500 people step into the virtual world and see first hand how stories and media are growing with new technology.
We want to say a big thank you to all our volunteers & team members whose unwavering energy and enthusiasm was crucial in delivering a positive environment for the children and families. And to the young people who attended LYFF 2024, we hope you enjoyed the festival as much as we enjoyed having you take part and we hope this is the start of a long connection between cinema, filmmaking and Leeds Young Film Festival.
While Leeds Young Film Festival won’t return till Easter 2025 we’re already thinking about how to make next year’s festival even more impactful. The insights gained and the feedback received are invaluable as we strive to make each festival more impactful than the last. But if you can’t wait for Leeds Young Film Festival to return, we do have some exciting events to look forward to too, including Cinema on the Square, our outdoor cinema experience celebrating movies and music with a range of films throughout the day including several family oriented films which will return in July.
If you want to stay in touch with the latest updates for Leeds Young Film Festival you can sign up to our mailing list to get a notification when Movie Club 2025 is announced.
