History
Ever since its first edition (2002), TIFF has supported in Romania both the film education of a young and very young public for attending art film in the cinema theatre (International Children Day - Special Film Screenings) and the filmmaking education ("Let’s Go Digital!” Filmmaking Workshop), covering the curriculum still unsatisfied need of both in the Romanian school system.
In 2009, for the first time in Romania, about 1500 students from 26 schools and high schools in Cluj-Napoca, attended and discussed, in cinema theaters, films especially selected for their age and on contemporary topics, during the 10 days of TIFF (27th May - 7th June 2009). Their teachers received educational materials to further develop lesson plans based on the films.
EducaTIFF has been the first relevant programme to bring films for children and teenagers in Romanian cinemas, while filling in the lack of lesson plans resources for Romanian teachers by providing proper educational materials based on these films.
In 2010, besides schools in Cluj Napoca, schools in smaller cities and in the rural area of the county (Turda, Căianu, Cătina, Jucu, Baciu, Aiton) have included EducaTIFF in their extracurricular activities. Seven local social services NGOs for young people and Cluj-Napoca High-School for Hearing Impaired joined also. The educational platform was extended with new educational events for teachers (“Presentation of european film education projects” panel with Hélène Jimenez – Ile de France regional delegate “Lycéens et Apprentis au cinéma”, France, Carsten Siehl - Film Theorist and Media Educator, Germany, and Rik Vermeulen - Executive Director of Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania).
Gradually, EducaTIFF is providing the proper tools to combine the students’ experience of viewing films in cinema theatres with the educational impact the films have on them.
EducaTIFF evolved from one edition to another, and in 2011 it became a strong educational platform for both public and private sector education institutions, also for NGOs that manage projects for un- or underserved groups (ethnic minorities, rural areas population, orphans and abandoned children, etc.) from all Cluj county, on two levels:
# media & film literacy seminars for the teaching staff (aiming to develop a regular & largely certified training scheme for the teaching staff)
# film screenings for students (aiming to provide teachers the materials which they can create lesson plans on) on age groups, with educational materials for teachers - before and after each screening, and debates in the cinema, held by film industry representatives and experts on each film's topics.
3500 students have participated to EducaTIFF, since its debut in 2009.
In 2011, EducaTIFF welcomed the students to participate in the film reviews competition Young Film Critics, highly regarded during the last days of the school term, at which all the nominees were granted free participation to a film criticism workshop, specially designed for children and young people.Teachers and librarians, school principals, members of County Board of Education and NGOs pedagogs participated at seminars on film & media literacy, for the first time included in the Programme.
The organizers of EducaTIFF, Romanian Film Promotion Association, aim to extend the educational platform to cover other counties in 2012, and they highly welcome proposals from education institutions from all over Romania.
More about EducaTIFF, including testimonials from our past editions, are to be found on our photo and video galleries and on facebook, youtube, mubi and tinredrum.