For the first time during National Schools Film Week, pupils across the country will be able to vote for their favourite film. The chance to vote in the Children’s Film and Television Awards will be one of many opportunities pupils will have to immerse themselves in films during the week starting October 9.

National Schools Film Week, now in its eighth year, is presented by Film Education, an organisation which aims to encourage the study of cinema in the curriculum. Sponsored by the UK Film Council, the event offers free screenings, seminars and discussions at more than 100 cinemas across the country.

Selected screenings will be hosted by members of the film industry, giving secondary pupils the chance to meet leading critics and key figures in film marketing and distribution.

Education minister Steven Twigg will discuss the Holocaust on film and citizenship after the London screening of The Pianist and an examiner from the British Board of Film Classification will give a presentation after the showing of Buffalo Soldiers.

Pupils will have the opportunity to learn about European cinema through screenings of films such as Respiro and Goodbye Lenin. Animated children’s films will include Sinbad: Legend of The Seven Seas and The Little Polar Bear, allowing primary pupils to explore different types of animation, from stop-motion to cartoons. For children in their first years of school, there will be screenings of U certificate films, including Jungle Book 2.

Other films to be shown will include Whale Rider, Dirty Pretty Things, Bowling for Columbine, L’Auberge Espagnole, Igby goes Down and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Deaf and blind children can benefit from the DDT-CSS system that delivers captions for the deaf and audio descriptions for the blind. Teaching materials are also available on the National Schools Film Week website (www.nsfw.org).

Voting for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Children’s Film and Television Awards takes place online at www.kidsvote.net between October 9 and November 21 and is open to pupils up to the age of 16.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, film week will run from October 27 to 31.

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