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© UNICEF HK/2017

Girlsfor? is one of the 15 finalists of The One Minutes Jr. Awards 2017 competition. Aurora Xu had the opportunity to participate in the masterclass with other nominees. Aside from enhancing her video shooting skills, she was able to share a oad range of views with local students, including shooting short videos, pressures and challenges of growing up, as well as reflecting the situations facing Hong Kong youth.

HONG KONG, 7 December 2017 – Hong Kong youth’s creative talent once again received global recognition! The Make A Video (MAV) 2017 competition was co-organized by Hong Kong Arts Centre ifva and supported by Hang Seng Bank. This year, two videos, Friends.Go by Jacky Chan and Girlsfor? by Aurora Xu (refer to the information sheet for details), were nominated for the The One Minutes Jr. Awards 2017.

The two videos were picked from a pool of more than 500 submissions from around the world and became two of the 15 finalists that made it to the award ceremony, which was held on 25 November in Amsterdam.

Award-winning film director Adam Wong, who is also a Make A Video Creative Advisor and Judge, as well as UNICEF HK Ambassador, travelled with Aurora and attended the award ceremony. He said, “I am very pleased to see children and youth from different countries express their views on growing up and world issues through one minute videos.”

© UNICEF HK/2017

Girlsfor? is one of the 15 finalists of The One Minutes Jr. Awards, and is selected as their favourite by members of the Junior Jury. Aurora noted that even though they didn’t know Chinese, they understood well about her work. This proved that video imaging has the power to transcend language barriers and spread the views and ideas far and wide.

“It is great that Hong Kong youth have the opportunity to participate in the event this year, as this helps them to think globally,” continued Wong. “Moreover, this gives other countries’ children and youth, and the general public a chance to understand each other’s challenges through the videos.”

This was the third time Hong Kong youth had made it to the final stage of The One Minutes Jr. Awards. Although Jacky and Aurora didn’t win the award, Aurora was very positive with her experience. Not only did she travel to the Netherlands and take part in the ceremony but also saw her video received critical acclaim from the junior jury and won a special prize.

“I never thought my video would be shown to children and youth from around the world when I entered the competition,” she noted. “I am delighted that my video is able to reflect the challenges and difficulties facing Hong Kong youth, and express their aspirations.”

She added, “The most amazing thing was that even though members of the junior jury didn’t know Chinese, they fully understood my work. This proved that video imaging can truly overcome language barriers, and help spread the views and ideas far and wide.”

Jane Lau, Chief Executive of UNICEF HK, said, “The Make A Video programme is a platform to encourage children’s voice to be heard and their right to participation be respected. We hope that these videos can enhance people’s interest in youth issues so that the oader society can push for change.”

Aside from the award ceremony, the organizer arranged all the nominees to attend a three-day masterclass, where through screenings and other activities, they exchanged views on video production and growing up issues with local students and representatives from related industries. In addition, the organizer also arranged professional instructional sessions so that the youth could learn more about script development, as well as filming and editing skills. It was hoped that these trainings would help the youth to fully utilize multimedia in expressing themselves.

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For more information please contact:

Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF

Jamie Wong, Communication Specialist                                        Tel : 2836 2967                                         Email: [email protected]