Another award for Burnham Market Primary School’s great filmmakers

The group had already won plaudits for their film S.I. Superficial Intelligence, and now has awards from Wales to add to their growing collection.

The group, aged 10 and 11 when the film was created, had been led by senior teacher Ashley Williams. They were unable to travel to Wales to receive their award for Best Film and another for  Best School or College Project from the Children’s International Film Festival Wales last month.

“It was fantastic news - we weren’t able to travel to Wales for the awards, but it was great to have won two categories,” said Mr Williams, who is behind the film project.

The film also won Best Film at the Into Film Awards earlier this year and some of those involved had the chance to travel to the famous Odeon Luxe in London’s Leicester Square where actor James Norton presented the award in June.

The film tells the story of two children fed-up with the amount of homework they receive and decide to build their own artificial intelligence robot named S.I to complete the work. But the more the robot learns, the more out of control it appears - and the potential risks of AI are laid bare.

The film started life as a classroom joke about an interactive whiteboard that was acting ‘like terrible AI.’

Mr Williams said film is a key part of the school’s teacher and learning and pupils both create and analyse them across the curriculum.

“We have had an amazing time with this film,” he said. “It was a passion project that has brought out the best from everyone involved. Everyone involved brought their best, showcasing their amazing skills on the big screen.”

Determined that being in rural North Norfolk wouldn’t be a barrier to film-making, Mr Williams said that being able to bring the art to his pupils was one of the most rewarding experiences of his career so far.

The premier of the short film was presented at Fakenham’s Central Cinema at an event hosted by Active Fakenham in March.