More than 3,000 pupils will be taking part in Discovery 2008, Scotland’s international film festival for young people, created and hosted by Dundee Contemporary Arts, in its fifth year.

The 10-day festival launches on October 21 and is offering schools a choice of 41 contemporary films from around the world - plus workshops and education resources - including animated stories for early years; a wide range of subtitled foreign-language films for primary and secondary pupils and some cracking films aimed at teenagers. The Substitute, for instance, is a Danish science-fiction thriller about a supply teacher who turns out to be an alien from another planet on a sinister mission (sound familiar?).

Although free bus transport for schools if provided, with some travelling to Dundee from as far away as Pitlochry, special Discovery 2008 screenings are being held in Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Stirling.

One school taking full advantage is Craigowl Primary, a new school in Dundee formed through the amalgamation of Brackens and Macalpine primaries. Depute head Ann Marie McDonald, one of the school’s two cultural co-ordinators, says: “We decided it would be appropriate to take part in the film festival as our first whole school-outing, with more than 500 pupils going to one of four films over a two-day period. The programme is geared to A Curriculum for Excellence and demonstrates that learning isn’t something that just takes place in the classroom. At Pounds 2 per child, it’s an outing all our parents can afford.”

Among the films that Craigowl pupils will be seeing are Shorts for Wee Ones, Going to School in India and Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame.

www.discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk; T: 01382 909900.