When IMDb founder Col Needham met our Youth Advisory Council

08 Jul 2021

4 mins
Review of the Year winner Dorothy with Col Needham and Rebecca O'Brian
Review of the Year winner Dorothy with Col Needham and Rebecca O'Brian

Having a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) means that we always get to receive crucial input from young people on our programme, our resources and what films feature in both our Into Film Festival and now our Into Film+ streaming platform. 

Just as importantly, it offers a huge amount of opportunities for young people to meet leading voices from across the film industry. At the end of 2020, we held an exclusive Q&A with James Bond producer and Into Film trustee Barbara Broccoli. To mark the end of the 2020/21 term, we were honoured to host another exclusive Q&A, this time with IMDb founder and Into Film trustee Col Needham.

Col joined us on 30 June and was interviewed by YAC members Sohana, Eoin and Jadon, with questions sent in by our YAC members from their homes all across the UK.

It was such an interesting and useful masterclass with Col Needham, and it was fascinating to hear him speak about film with so much joy and enthusiasm.

YAC member, Freya

Questions covered a whole range of topics including who and what inspired Col as a young person and advice for those YAC members who have their own IMDb profiles as well as stories about how IMDb was set up, how it has developed and where it might be going next. Most of all, it was about Col's enthusiasm for film and whether you watch film in a cinema, at home, on your phone or elsewhere. 

All of life's riddles are answered in the movies

Col Needham quoting actor Steve Martin during the Q&A

For the event, we invited all YAC members, our Young Reporters and our Education Ambassadors to tune in, and we received some lovely feedback from many of them.

YAC member Sohana said; "I was inspired by the fact that Col watches the credits at the end of films to appreciate all the different jobs and people who contribute towards the film. This is something that I will also do to see the variety of jobs in the industry for future interest. It was really interesting to see how he made it in the film industry from his enthusiasm and interest in films, rather than being an actor or director, which are the more standard ways of making it in the industry".

YAC member Freya said; "It was such an interesting and useful masterclass with Col Needham, and it was fascinating to hear him speak about film with so much joy and enthusiasm. I loved his really practical advice on my question about my career - I'm off to write a bio for the first time so am putting his advice straight into practice".

Applications to be part of our Youth Advisory Council for 2021/22 are now closed for England and Wales. Limited spaces are available on YAC in Scotland and Northern Ireland. If any of your students are aged between 10-18 and would like to have similar unique experiences and gain a window into the film industry then check out how to apply below.

Finally, we would like to give a huge thank you to Col Needham for bringing such happiness and inspiration to our equally inspiring YAC members.

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