Young BAFTA to showcase game design at Children’s International Film Festival 2025

BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, will be part of this year’s Children’s International Film Festival (CIFF) in Kingston Upon Thames on June 6th.

As a Friend of the Festival, BAFTA will be welcoming 10 to 11 year olds from a number of schools to a dedicated game design workshop as part of a wider range of masterclasses, workshops, screenings and events at CIFF 2025. Students will use BAFTA’s idea generator to help them come up with their own unique game concept exploring character, story, environment and gameplay. An industry expert will be on hand for advice and feedback.

Lisa Prime, Head of Children & Young People’s Programme at BAFTA, said,“Inspiring the next generation of budding creatives, designers and content creators is central to BAFTA’s purpose, so we are delighted to spotlight the creative process of games as part of the Festival.  2025 marks fifteen years of BAFTA’s Young Game Designers competition, discovering talented young people across the UK who are now working in the industry. We’re particularly excited to welcome young people from Rotherham, Children’s Capital of Culture 2025, and to see what amazing ideas the students come up with whilst also learning key transferable skills such as collaboration and communication.”

“Working closely with BAFTA has enabled us to expand what we bring to the Festival, to encompass games as well as film and other more traditional screen arts. We will be welcoming children from the Children’s Capital of Culture 2025, Rotherham, to these sessions and can’t wait to see the ideas they come up with. The schools will then be able to head off to other screenings and events at CIFF, before joining the Gala Awards that evening at The Rose Theatre in Kingston,” said George Young, CIFF Founder.

BAFTA runs its annual Young Game Designers competition to inspire and support young people who are passionate about games. It is open to 10 to 18 year olds across the UK who design, develop and present new game ideas to the world. There are two awards each split into two age groups. The Game Concept Award and the Game Making Award, which allow young game designers to show off their creative and storytelling skills as well as their technical skills in creating engaging gameplay for an original game idea. Final submissions are due by March 20th, 2025 and the winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on June 19th.