Sixth Former Grace heads to Sicily to be part of an ambitious film project

Published on isbi School News dated Tuesday 6th of December 2022

Norwich High School for Girls Year 13 student Grace Hosier is looking forward to heading to Sicily in February 2023 to be part of an ambitious youth film project called Project Paradiso.

Project Paradiso is a prestige project from Young Film Academy (YFA), offering a select group of YFA’s most promising students the chance to create a stunning short film in a cinematic location in Sicily, Italy, next year.

Sixth Former Grace, who is also one of our Deputy Head Girls, was one of just 25 students chosen to be part of the project, where participants unite educational training with a real-world film industry opportunity. She has been involved with YFA for many years, having attended their residential film-making and screen acting summer course since she was 12 years old.

The film project is crowd-funded and the students involved have been working hard to raise the money needed to make the film a reality. With the funding target now reached, the project enters its second stage: pre-production. Students in the screenwriting department are now collaborating to create the film’s concept and script.

The production stage of Project Paradiso will take place over February half-term, with the students joining YFA staff in Sicily to shoot the film. Grace is part of the production crew, helping to oversee the production as a whole and making sure it runs smoothly.

“I greatly enjoy the variety of opportunities there are within the industry, and love to see the process of a concept becoming a reality. I am also very appreciative to YFA for selecting me for this opportunity.”

Grace Hosier, Year 13 student

The chance to be involved in a real world film industry project such as this is a unique opportunity for Grace, who plans to go on to study Film and Television Production at university. She first heard about Young Film Academy through a one day workshop held at Norwich High School for Girls and is now using her film skills to help create behind the scenes videos for the school as well as her projects outside of school.

Project Paradiso’s completed film will premiere at an international film festival, and screen on the festival circuit with all the creator’s names on it. We can’t wait to see how it turns out!