Festival day 5

Sunday, November 12th: the last day of the festival. This day had a full and diverse program, but the Junior Science Quiz and the Award show were definitely the highlights.

Junior Science quiz

The Junior Science Quiz is a recurring part of the InScience festival and is in collaboration with the youth science program Mystery X Science4Kids of the Nijmegen Foundation for Children’s Science. For the third year in a row, the quiz was presented by Neeltje together with scientist Matthieu, assisted by the handymen Frederik and Arie. A record of 46 children between the nine and twelve years participated in the quiz, including children who participated for the second or even third time. They contested to win the coveted vortex cannon and the NEMO prize package.

The participants received a ballot box with three options for each question. They each had ten seconds to answer the question, which made it very exciting, as the children had to quickly answer a question. A total of twelve questions had to be answered. The questions covered topics from a diversity of science, including astronomy, paleontology, neurology, chemistry and film science. The questions and answers were initiated on the basis of a video, a chat or a demonstration of experts in the field. When all the questions were answered, Mister Hacker, who kept the score, revealed the results. Under loud stamping and a drum roll the numbers three, two and one were made known. The young Robbert took the win with a score of no less than eight points.

And what did the children find the hardest question? Well, the answer was almost unanimous. Diederik Jekel’s question about what a hydrogen molecule looks like. The whole room is a bit wiser: the molecule is in the shape of the head of Mickey Mouse.

Award show

After five festival days, it was time for the most exciting program part: the Award show. On day 5, the NTR Audience Award and the Student Jury Award were awarded to winning films. The evening was presented by NTR De Kennis van Nu presenter Elisabeth van Nimwegen. Gijs Scholten of Aschat, the new chairman of the Academy of Arts, gave an introduction about post-truth, a topic that is related to the theme of this year ‘No Facts, No Future’.

Scholten van Aschat then gave the floor to the Student Jury who awarded the Student Jury Award. The jury consisted of five local students. They’ve watched a selection of ten films and followed different workshops. Because it is InScience, the jury looked at the scientific aspect of the films, but the cinematographic aspect was considered. In chorus, the Student Jury called out Dusk Chorus, the winner. Director Alessandro D’Emilia was present at the show and received the trophy and the prize of 500 euros.

After a short break, in which the InScience-initiated film The Prediction Machine was shown and a short interview was held with the makers Floris de Lange and Marleine van der Werf, the NTR Audience Award was awarded by Van Nimwegen. The top three consisted of Chasing Coral, The Farthest and Minute Bodies. The main prize went to Chasing Coral. The filmmakers from America were not able to attend the Award show, but they had sent a short video message to the InScience Audience. In this video, she told the audience that they were ”humbled beyond belief” and very grateful. For those who have not been able to see the film during the festival, the film can be watched on Netflix.

Festival director Johan van de Woestijne finished the evening with a gratitude for anyone who made the festival possible. After five festival days, with fifty films, two hundred scientists and filmmakers, and one hundred and twenty volunteers who helped behind the scenes, the third edition of InScience came to an end.