On Wednesday 4th December, Into Film Scotland’s festive breakfast event was held at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh to not only celebrate their 10th anniversary, but to announce that award-winning actor, Dougray Scott is to be its new Industry Ambassador for Scotland.
Scott, who appeared at the industry event via video link, says “I am incredibly honoured to become an Into Film Ambassador for Scotland. I’m very passionate about Scotland and I’m thrilled by this opportunity to work alongside the Into Film Scotland team and to champion the incredible work that Into Film does. I think we can inspire and support young people across Scotland, helping to shape their education and open doors to an exciting future in the Scottish screen industry. Let’s keep building this amazing legacy for the next generation.”
The event both celebrated the last ten years of achievements and partnerships, while unveiling an ambitious vision for the future — one that aims to inspire and engage young people across Scotland.
Into Film CEO, Fiona Evans said “Iam enormously proud that Dougray has agreed to be an ambassador for Into Film Scotland, particularly at such an exciting time for the Into Film Scotland programme. Dougray supported us at the recent Into Film Awards and I am very grateful for his time and passion for what we do. We are looking forward to working with Dougray to further inspire the educators and young people we engage with across Scotland”.
Along with the news of Dougray Scott’s ambassadorship, was an extempore speech given by Into Film alumnus and founder of Oddness films, Glasgow born Kieran Howe who spoke with enormous warmth about his Dad and how “…The opportunity I had with Into Film was life changing. They set me on the path of turning a passion — running around with my Dad’s tape camera making movies in the garden — into a career...”
The annual Into Film Festival, that is supported by Cinema First and the UK film industry, has had one of the most successful years to date, welcoming across the UK, 356,085 children, young people and their educators to its programme of free screenings and special screen careers events. Across Scotland, the Into Film Festival attendees broke previous Into Film Festival records with over 30,600 attendees at 228 screenings – from Papay, Orkney to Dumfries.
Into Film Scotland has expanded dramatically, now actively engaging 53% of all schools in all 32 local authorities across Scotland through its film education programme. It has trained around 6,000 Scottish teachers since 2014 and more than 2,500 teachers in Scotland use Into Film with 30,000 teaching resources having been downloaded by Scottish educators since 2017.
The core Into Film programme is free for UK state schools, colleges and other youth settings, thanks to support from the BFI, National Lottery good cause funding and other key funders including Cinema First and Northern Ireland Screen.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 