Into Film Clubs
Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.
We are continuously adding new titles to Into Film+, our free* streaming service for schools, and we are pleased to offer new, inspirational and diverse stories with this fresh batch. There are films suitable for all age groups, each accompanied by discussion guides that offer further context and gently challenge learners to further engage with the films' themes and educational value.
The latest additions to the catalogue feature spectacular depictions of the natural world, from the animal kingdom in The Wild Robot, to exhilarating ocean views in Moana 2 and breathtaking mountain tops in Blink. Disabilities and the power of representation are explored in Buffalo Kids and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. Important pieces of Irish and English literature are reimagined on screen in That They May Face the Rising Sun and Murder on the Orient Express, and the art and graft of filmmaking become part of the story in Argo and Dìdi.
The Wild Robot
Based on an acclaimed children's book, this gorgeous animation explores what happens when the natural world and technology collide. A newly manufactured robot is shipwrecked on an island uninhabited by humans. Programmed to assist people, the robot ROZZUM unit 7134, or simply ‘Roz', is baffled to find herself in these wild natural surroundings, where she is treated with suspicion by the native animals. Nevertheless, Roz learns communication and survival skills and becomes an adoptive parent to an orphaned gosling, who must learn how to fly before migration season. Is her artificial intelligence up to the task of raising, guiding and loving a young one?
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 5-8 and supports subjects including Science and PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding animals, robots and artificial intelligence, life and death and family.
Blink
Discovery and family are also at the heart of this remarkable documentary, which follows two parents and their four children on a year-long round-the-world trip exploring mountains, rainforests and deserts. Three of the children have been diagnosed with a rare disease that leads to severe visual impairment, so the plan is to fill their visual memories with breathtaking sights. But along the way, the family also discovers the joy of using all their sense to experience the world, learning to face challenges together and preparing themselves for whatever the future holds.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 8-12 and supports subjects including Geography and PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding family, travel and exploration, disabilities and inclusion, and the natural world.
Moana 2
Moana the Polynesian teenage seafarer is back! As her island's chief ocean voyager, she is to be recognised with the prestigious title of ‘Tautai', or leader of land and sea. But in the middle of the ceremony, Moana receives an unexpected message from her ancestors, with a mission to reconnect all the people and communities of Oceania. Joined by a motley crew and reunited with her old friend and demi-god Maui, Moana sets sail on a quest to find the mysterious island of Motu Fetu, now hidden by the jealous God of Storms. Catch up with how it all started in the first Moana instalment, also available to stream on Into Film+.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 8-12 and supports subjects including Science and PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding community, storytelling, indigenous people and technology.
Buffalo Kids
This Spanish-produced animation is a family-friendly Western-style adventure, featuring a disabled protagonist inspired by the director's own son, who had cerebral palsy. The story begins with two young Irish orphans arriving in New York City in 1886. Setting out to find their uncle in California, Mary and Tom board a cross-country train with a group of other children and make an extraordinary new friend called Nick, who uses a wheelchair and communicates in his own special way. Out in the Wild West they also encounter devious bandits, Native American allies and majestic animals, and must work together to find their family.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 8-12 and supports subjects including History and PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding animals, travel and exploration, disabilities and inclusion, and family.
Murder on the Orient Express
Adapted from the seminal Agatha Christie novel of the same name, this film is directed by and stars Into Film Ambassador Kenneth Branagh in the role of detective Hercule Poirot. Thirteen passengers are travelling through Europe on the illustrious Orient Express. When one of them is murdered, everyone becomes a suspect. It falls upon Poirot to solve the puzzle of who the murderer is - before they strike again. But each suspect has their own story to tell, their own version of events, and their own secrets to hide. This classic whodunit is a thrilling mystery with plenty of 1930s flare.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 12-15 and supports subjects including English and History, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding literature and adaptations, racism and prejudice, and criminal investigations.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Superman is perhaps the quintessential superhero, so when it came to casting an actor who would play him in the first ever big-budget screen adaptation, its filmmakers were looking for someone who really embodied the role - strong, wholesome and inspiring. This touching documentary follows how Christopher Reeve became world-famous thanks to that character, but just as his career in Hollywood was soaring, he had an accident that would leave him paralyzed him from the neck down for the rest of his life. As his family and friends recount, he didn't abandon hope, nor the film industry, and became an advocate for disability rights and representation.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 12-15 and supports subjects including PSHE Education and Media Studies, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding film history, disabilities and inclusion, family and friendship, and life and death.
That They May Face the Rising Sun
Based on a popular Irish novel by John McGahern, this sensitive film is an excellent window into rural life and the history of Irish tradition. Joe and Kate Ruttledge are a married couple adapting to rural life in the sparsely populated community of County Leitrim, where Joe grew up as a young boy. Returning after a long time away in the big city of London, the couple find themselves becoming deeply embedded in the small dramas and melancholic lives of the people surrounding them, navigating their way through generations of ritual, work, trauma and longing.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 15+ and supports subjects including Geography and Psychology, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding community, rural spaces, mental health and gender representation.
Argo
Here at Into Film we celebrate the transferable skills gained through filmmaking: as this next title based on a remarkable true story demonstrates, film and high-level problem-solving go hand in hand. During the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, six American nationals manage to escape and take refuge, but are still trapped in the city of Tehran. The CIA and State Department decide to bring in Tony Mendez, a specialist who proposes that they send in a rescue party posing as a film crew scouting locations for a science fiction movie. This award-winning film is tense, surprisingly funny and still relevant to today's international conflicts.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 15+ and supports subjects including Media Studies and Film Studies, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding historical events, mass media and politics.
Dìdi
From fake Hollywood film crews to the early days of YouTube and trying to be your authentic self. In the summer of 2008, 13-year-old Chris lives in California with his sister, mother, and grandmother, each of whom he finds annoying in different ways. Chris' dad works back home in Taiwan, and the family speak a mixture of Mandarin and English. Finding it difficult to navigate his friendship circles at school and online, and with the complicated new world of social media causing even more trouble, Chris spends a summer figuring out how to flirt, how to skate and how to love his mum.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 16+ and supports subjects including PSHE Education and Film Studies, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding growing up, mass media, racism and prejudice, family, and friendship.
Please note: Film is a powerful tool for learning, helping to develop critical thinking, empathy, and an understanding of different perspectives. Our films have been selected with consideration to age-appropriateness, safeguarding, the curriculum and statutory and non-statutory guidance to schools. Some of our films and resources include sensitive content which is highlighted in the guidance that Into Film provides with each film. Educators should carefully watch or read all elements of any content and must ensure they are following their own school's policies and guidelines prior to using films and resources in the classroom or in after-school clubs. The final decision to use any film or resource sits with teachers, who should decide what is appropriate for their students using their professional judgement and their knowledge of their students, their school context and their community. Teachers must follow their school's safeguarding protocol if a student is distressed or makes a disclosure as a result of the use of any film or other content.
How Do I Get Started?
To access Into Film+, all you'll need is an Into Film Account - it's completely free, and only takes a moment to set up. Into Film+ is free to use for all UK state schools that hold a valid Public Video Screening (PVS) Licence from Filmbankmedia.
Filmbankmedia PVS Licences are paid for on behalf of schools by all local authorities in England and by some local authorities in both Wales and Scotland. Into Film NI cover the license cost for some schools in Northern Ireland. For further information on licensing in your locality please see our FAQs.
If you're a state school in England that's funded by the Department for Education, you will automatically have access to Into Film+ Premium, which offers an extended catalogue of 700+ titles. Find out more about Into Film+ Premium in our FAQs.
If you don't have a PVS Licence, or aren't already covered, then a licence can easily be obtained from Filmbankmedia.
Filmbankmedia
Filmbankmedia licenses and distributes film and TV entertainment to many groups and is the licensing authority we work with to ensure schools, libraries and youth groups have the permissions to screen films from our catalogue.
* Screenings for an entertainment or extra-curricular purpose require a PVS (Public Video Screening) Licence from Filmbankmedia. State-funded schools in England are covered by the PVS Licence.
The core Into Film programme is free for UK state schools, colleges and other youth settings, thanks to support from the BFI, awarding National Lottery good cause funding, and through other key funders including Cinema First and Northern Ireland Screen.
