The This is England short-film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for cycle 4e classes. This year you can access screenings all school year all around France. The cycle 4 selection has ants and a sporting dog, children living in rural communities, the 2012 Olympics and a DIY spaceship.
If you sign up for a collège showing, your students will see seven films ranging in length from 5 to 21 minutes. Two are animations, two are documentaries and three are live-action fiction stories.
You can find out about organising a screening in our article. And you can download the teaching packs for jeune public, collège and lycée on the schools site.
You can see the seven titles in the Cycle 4 selection here and access a downloadable teaching pack for each. There is also a presentation to help pupils anticipate about the films before seeing them.
Confessions Of An English Ant-Eater: 7m
A surreal short animation film about Thomas, a boy who becomes addicted to eating ants – despite the warnings of his parents. In best children's book tradition, it's narrated in rhyme.
The following two films both have young protagonists living in rural communities.
Eve: 21m
A documentary about nine-year-old Eve, who lives in one of the oldest off-grid communities in the U.K., Tinkers Bubble. The film follows her returning to mainstream school and becoming a young climate activist.
Stanley: 12m
10 year old Stanley lives an isolated life on a farm with his mother, Minnie. One summer day, two strangers arrive on the property, a man with a daughter Stanley's age.
WildKind: 7m
The rural theme continues with the beautiful black-and-white animation WildKind from Northern Ireland, based on a picture book. A celebration of nature and simplicity.
Hustle And Run: 18m
The second documentary is a true underdog story about a form of dog sport called Flyball. A women's team with no great experience decides to overturn the conventions of the sport, which is dominated by Border collies, by training a whippet called Hustle.
Run Like We: 13m
More running in this short fiction set around the 2012 Olympics in London. Fourteen-year-old Alvin's friends are all mad about Usain Bolt, and his Jamaican father is of course proud of the sprinting star. But Alvin hates sport with a passion and can't understand why, "Everyone thinks every black guy can run fast."
Rocket Fuel: 15m
Rocket Fuel is a humorous hymn to imagination where two kids from a council estate in Yorkshire decide to turn an abandoned car into a spaceship.
This is England in a Cinema Near You
If you would like to organise a projection of one of the This is England schools programmes for your pupils at any point in the school year, and you have a local cinema that is willing to do so, they can download a programme from Cinego for professional cinemas. Find the details here.
This is England
Rouen and region
15-23 November 2025
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Tag(s) : "animation" "British culture" "collège" "coming-of-age" "difference" "dogs" "Environmental Activism" "festival" "film" "film festival" "food banks" "imagination" "integration" "nature" "Normandy" "Olympics" "parent-children relationships" "rhyme" "Rouen" "short films" "sport" "teaching materials"
