Eastside's Directors Christopher Enticott and Rakhee Jasani have just returned from a visit to Silicon Valley in California where they attended a meeting of the Adobe Youth Voices global partners, hosted at the Adobe offices in San Jose. The meeting brought together organisations from across the US and around the world, united under the common aim to develop media skills amongst young people and their educators.

Adobe Youth Voices have just released their picks for the best student-produced media of the year, and four pieces from the UK have been shortlisted as finalists. The young people have done the hard work, now we need you to vote! Click below to watch and vote for each UK entry for the Audience Award. Once you have voted, please share with your social networks and ask them to do the same! - Congratulations to all our finalists!

Last weekend (Sunday 28th April 2013), Eastside brought some West End glamour to Rich Mix in East London as we held the world premiere of five short films made by the participants of the BFI Film Academy delivered by Eastside. We also held the first-ever BFI Film Academy Awards hosted by Christopher Enticott and actor Chook Sibtain complete with a red carpet, an Oscars themed party and buckets of popcorn.

Last weekend (Saturday 27th April, 2013), as part of the on-going support we provide for our Adobe Youth Voices educators, Eastside offered a masterclass and hands-on workshop exploring a range of different Stop Motion Animation techniques under the expert guidance of Animator, Dan Richards. Dan is an Adobe Youth Voices Lead Educator and the founder of Whitstable based animation studio Animate and Create in Kent.

Eastside opened its doors to the public last night (Tuesday 23rd April, 2013) to host a World Book Night event, a celebration of reading and books to inspire and encourage reading in those who do not regularly do so. We enjoyed speaking to a wide variety of local people passing by (or waiting at the bus stop!) including a mix of avid readers, those hoping to rediscover their love of reading and those who really do not read much at all.

Last night (16 April, 2013) six talented young film makers, who are currently taking part in the BFI Film Academy delivered by Eastside, had a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with a film industry VIP. Paul Brett, the Executive Producer of many critically acclaimed and award-winning films including The King’s Speech and The Guard, spent time with around thirty young people with ambitions to work in film.

Translation Nation is now underway for the third year with some exciting developments. During the first two years of our award winning project, Translation Nation focussed on the community languages spoken by children at primary schools. In this third year, we are now extending the project to also include pupils at secondary schools with a focus on promoting the modern foreign languages they are currently learning.

Eastside's Adobe Youth Voices co-ordinators Rakhee Jasani and Kate Burke were pleased to attend an AYV 'Rough Cut Review' at Woodbridge High School today (22 March, 2013). A group of students have been working with AYV educator Amy Gold to develop a series of comic book illustrations and today they all came together to share their work in progress and to get feedback before making their final submissions.

Today (7 March 2013), is World Book Day, a national celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading. All this week, schools across London have been working with Eastside's storytellers, writers and poets to help bring books and stories to life and creating new adventures for some of their favourite characters. Our World Book Day workshops feature stories by a range of popular authors from Roald Dahl... to Dr Seuss!

We are pleased to be able to offer Adobe Youth Voices Educators in London an opportunity to develop their animation skills at a stop motion animation workshop, to be held at Eastside on Saturday 27th April. The workshop, run by animator Dan Richards, is suitable for beginners and is designed to give an insight into the basics of animation and how you might introduce elements into the projects you run with young people.