Graduates of Facets Multi-Media's Young Chicago Critics program are jazzed to share their movie critiquing skills with fellow film jurors in Europe.
On July 15, four alums of the Young Chicago Critics program traveled to Giffoni, Italy, to serve as youth jury members for Europe's largest film festival for children, the Giffoni Children's Film Festival. Beginning July 18, Ishara Emerson, 13, and Noelle Savin, 13, of Evanston and Nelson Ogbuagu, 14, and June Helen Murphy, 14, of Chicago will be critiquing award-winning children's films from around the world.

"I'm so excited about Italy," Ogbuagu said. "It'll be fascinating to see these foreign films while living in another culture and seeing how young people from all over the world respond to these films."

These young critics will spend eight days, July 18-26, seeing films with 500 other international delegates on the Giffoni Festival's "Free to Fly" jury. Among the stars scheduled to attend the 2008 Giffoni Festival are Tim Roth, Meg Ryan, and Abigail Breslin.


"This is an amazing opportunity," Savin said. "Having attended YCC twice, I feel really prepared to share my opinions."

Designed for kids aged 7 to 14, Young Chicago Critics gives students the skills and confidence necessary to produce and critique films. The four delegates were chosen from a group of Young Chicago Critics who auditioned in mid-May.

Young Chicago Critics is a program of the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. The Festival is the largest festival of films for children in North America and features more than 200 animated and live action films from 35 countries. The Festival welcomes nearly 24,000 Chicago area children, adults, and educators to the screenings, and 100 filmmakers, media professionals and celebrities attend the Festival to lead interactive workshops with kids. The 2008 Festival will be held on October 23 - November 2.