This is not a revolution
Although it might look this way, we are not turning everything upside down. What you see is a huge change, but it is also a natural consequence of our dynamic growth. We started out 18 years ago as an offspring of an educational project for young audiences. Today, the scope of our activities is much wider. Our film festival is present in 20 towns and cities – and online. Every year, we present 160 films. Last year, the festival attracted more than 65 thousand viewers. And this is just a fraction of all that we do.
All our projects have a common goal: to promote high-quality cinematography and to make young viewers sensitive to its value. We believe that top-quality films adapted to the target age group help our audience get to know and understand the world and other people.
The film festival is the groundwork for all our activities. It helps us reach young viewers. This is the foundation for the next level: film distribution. We get through to audiences across Poland by distributing well-renowned films such as Belle, Yuku and the Himalayan Flower, Even Mice Belong in Heaven, School of Magical Animals or upcoming Argonuts. Our catalogue also includes Polish animations, such as Hug me. Honeyseekers, Basia, or Kitty Kotty, which has already been watched by more than 230 thousand cinema-goers.
We have also continued running the educational project aimed at sharing our passion for cinema with schoolchildren and teachers. The New Horizons of Film Education initiative allows us to reach even the smallest towns and villages with niche films. We are present in 120 venues, offering films and series for viewers at different stages of education, from preschool to high school. We can proudly say that this school year, there have been almost 450 thousand attendees at our educational screenings.
To crown it all, there is our industry programme that supports filmmakers in their fascinating creative journey. The forum we organise is the one of the largest international event focusing on young audiences in Central and Eastern Europe. This film development programme helped bring to life numerous audience-favourite productions, including Double Trouble, Detective Bruno, and a variety of documentaries. We are working together on a number of new productions.
To connect all these elements even tighter, we have created the new name of Young Horizons.
‘Our educational project developed into the festival and film distribution programme, while the shortage of Polish films for young viewers gave rise to our involvement in providing support for filmmakers at the production stage. This evolution is a consistent and natural process that has taken place for the past 18 years’, says Maciej Jakubczyk, The New Horizons Association Board Member.
Meet Young Horizons
The new name responds to our internal complexity as well as to external needs. The previous name and festival branding created connotations with a project addressed to the youngest kids. As a result, it was difficult to make it clear that the screenings were also targeted at older children. After all, our programme includes productions for various young age groups. So, to attract the attention of viewers aged 7+ and their guardians, we needed a more comprehensive and adequate name. Young Horizons is a name that leaves no room for doubt.
‘We wish to create a unique event, not only for the youngest viewers. We have designed the new name and branding, as we have also extended our catalogue for older children and adolescents. Thanks to the new approach, both the smallest kids and teenage viewers will be able to watch great films at our festival’, explains Kamila Tomkiel-Skowrońska, Director of IFF Young Horizons.
Looking beyond the horizon with the festival poster
The new visual key enables us to convey the most important message: that our festival offers an abundant and varied programme for young viewers of various ages. In particular, we mean to address those young people who do not feel like kids anymore and do not want to be described as such. We are sure that the poster for this year’s edition of the festival, based on our new visual identity and emanating its fresh energy, will attract a large group of young viewers. By entering the world of film, they will be able to look far beyond the horizon.
The development of the festival and our willingness to hold a dialogue with older young viewers do not mean that we have forgotten about the little ones. Our film catalogue is still full of diverse productions addressed to them. We have also adapted part of our visual communication to suit their needs.
Complex actions require simple symbols
The new logotype is a simplified representation of the horizon. Obviously, this motif has not been chosen at random. We are drawing from our roots: The New Horizons Association. We are proud to be its part, and we wish to emphasize that we belong there not only with our actions but also with our naming and branding.
As our activities cover a variety of areas and our ambition is to reach a wider target group, the logotype is purely minimalist. The simple design and clear typography let us bring all our projects together: the festival, the film distribution programme, the industry programme, and the educational programme.
'The half-circle motif of the graphic mark is a great link between the brand and the audience members, who constantly search for new qualities hidden beyond the film horizon. The visual system we have created is meant not only to join all the components of the brand but also to highlight the unique features of each sub-brand. For each of them, we have designed a separate colour scheme’, says Maria Prochaczek from Muflon Studio, responsible for the new branding.
