There's no shortage of young people in Yorkshire with stories to tell. The shortage could be in the doors left open to them.
For anyone growing up outside the established centres of the British film industry, the route from watching films to making them can feel less like a career path than a piece of improbable fiction. Equipment costs money. Work experience often depends on contacts. Entry-level opportunities cluster elsewhere. Even the language of sets, crews and commissions can make the industry sound like a private conversation already taking place between people who know one another.
But a new regional partnership led by Sheffield’s Showroom Cinema is intended to change some of that.
Showroom has been selected to deliver BFI Film Academy Yorkshire and The Humber, one of 12 new hubs being established across the UK for young people aged 16 to 25. Working with Leeds Young Film and Yorkshire-based cultural agency Reel Solutions, it will provide free filmmaking courses in Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Scarborough, alongside year-round membership, mentoring and career development.
Between 2026 and 2029, 320 young people aged 16 to 19 are going to be offered places on introductory courses. Those who take part will gain practical experience of filmmaking, but the more important promise might be what happens after the course has finished: alumni will remain able to access support until the age of 25, including drop-in sessions, talks and help with CVs. That input is potentially priceless.
And the continuity matters. A week of inspiration can be transformative, but it's not the same as a route into work. Creative schemes too often give young people a glimpse of an industry and then return them to precisely the same barriers they faced before. The attempt here is to create a regional community around them - somewhere to return with questions, ambitions and the inevitable knock-backs.
“We are proud to continue championing young filmmakers across Yorkshire,” says Victoria Firth, CEO of Showroom Cinema. “This funding from UK Government and National Lottery enables us, alongside our fantastic delivery partners, to open up access to filmmaking opportunities for young people who might not otherwise have the chance to step onto a set, develop their skills, and find their voice through film.”
The phrase “closer to home” is easily passed over in announcements of this kind. It shouldn't be. Travel fares, overnight accommodation and the confidence needed to enter unfamiliar institutions are real barriers, particularly for young people whose families cannot absorb the cost of an uncertain creative ambition.
Placing courses in four very different Yorkshire communities is therefore significant. This isn't a programme asking every aspiring filmmaker to find their way to one metropolitan building. Sheffield brings the reach of one of Europe’s largest independent cinemas and a creative-business community based at the adjoining Work Station. Leeds Young Film has spent more than a quarter of a century working with young audiences and filmmakers, while Reel Solutions has delivered filmmaking courses and career support for young people since 2011. Together, the partners already possess relationships, knowledge and trust across the region.
The wider challenge is considerable. Talent, we know, is evenly distributed, but access to the screen industries isn't. When the first rung of the ladder is an unpaid placement, a long journey or an introduction through somebody already inside the business, “breaking in” becomes a test not only of ability, but of income, geography and social confidence.
The BFI says its new hubs will focus particularly on young people currently underrepresented in film, television and the wider screen sector. The national Film Academy has built a network of more than 11,000 alumni since its launch in 2012. The new structure is designed to make training and support available in every nation and region of the UK, rather than requiring young people to leave home before their careers have even begun.
For Yorkshire and the Humber, this is also about who gets to represent the region. Film and television help determine which lives are noticed, which accents are heard and which places are allowed complexity. If the people holding the camera, writing the script, recording the sound and making decisions in the edit come from a narrow range of backgrounds, the stories on screen narrow too.
The next generation shouldn't have to wait for somebody from elsewhere to discover them - or to explain their own communities back to them.
The first introductory courses will take place during autumn 2026. Showroom Cinema’s Sheffield course runs from Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November, with applications closing at midnight on Wednesday 23 September. Leeds Young Film will run its Leeds and Bradford course from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, with a 5pm deadline on Sunday 27 September. Reel Solutions’ Scarborough course runs from Friday 23 to Saturday 31 October; prospective applicants should check the Academy webpage for its confirmed closing date.
Young people aged 16 to 25 can also join the wider BFI Film Academy Yorkshire and The Humber community now.
This is a huge opportunity to put the right equipment and knowledge into young hands. It can make the jargon intelligible, turn strangers into collaborators and replace a distant idea with a first piece of work. It can give somebody a person to call after the course ends.
Most importantly, it can tell a young filmmaker in Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds, Scarborough or anywhere between them that the place they come from isn't something to overcome before they start. It might be the very reason their work needs to exist.
Applications and details are available at BFI Film Academy Yorkshire and The Humber.
Header image: BFI Film Academy
