17th Youth in Film Awards

The 17th Youth in Film Awards ceremony (now known as the Young Artist Awards), presented by the Youth in Film Association, honored outstanding youth performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television and music for the 1994–1995 season, and took place in 1996 in Hollywood, California.

Established organization to establish an awards ceremony specifically set to recognize and award the contributions of performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television, theater and music.

Categories
★ Bold indicates the winner in each category.

Best Young Leading Actor: Feature Film
★ Wil Horneff – Born to Be Wild
 * Jerry Barone – Two Bits
 * Jesse Bradford – Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog
 * Brad Renfro & Joseph Mazzello – The Cure
 * Hal Scardino – The Indian in the Cupboard
 * Ryan Slater – The Amazing Panda Adventure
 * Jonathan Taylor Thomas – Tom and Huck
 * Leonardo DiCaprio - The Basketball Diaries

Best Young Leading Actress: Feature Film
★ Anna Chlumsky – Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain
 * Vanessa Lee Chester – A Little Princess
 * Liesel Matthews – A Little Princess
 * Christina Ricci – Casper
 * Claire Danes – Home for the Holidays
 * Kirsten Dunst – Jumanji
 * Nicole Lund – Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain
 * Alicia Silverstone – Clueless

Best Young Supporting Actor: Feature Film
★ Jonathan Hernandez – My Family
 * Joseph Anderson – Mr. Holland's Opus
 * Steve Cardenas – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
 * Rishi Bhat – The Indian in the Cupboard
 * Thomas Ian Nicholas – A Kid in King Arthur's Court

Best Young Supporting Actress: Feature Film
★ Kristy Young – Gordy
 * Stacey Dash – Clueless
 * Julia Devin – The Tie That Binds
 * Brittany Murphy – Clueless
 * Jean Marie Barnwell – Born to Be Wild
 * Sarah Wayne – Magic in the Water
 * Yi Ding – The Amazing Panda Adventure

Best Performance by a Young Actor Under 10: Feature Film
★ Nicholas John Renner – Mr. Holland's Opus
 * Jimmy Baker – Man of the House
 * Dylan Haggerty – Grizzly Mountain
 * Joshua Haines – Three Wishes
 * Joel Palmer – Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog
 * Andy Ryan – Paul McCall

Best Performance by a Young Actress Under 10: Feature Film
★ Scarlett Pomers – The Baby-Sitters Club
 * Courtney Chase – Roommates
 * Bethany Richards – Angus
 * Ashley Olsen – It Takes Two
 * Mary-Kate Olsen – It Takes Two

Best Performance by a Young Actor: TV Special
★ Mike McCarthy – Deadly Whispers
 * Robert Bishop – Breach of Faith
 * Geoffrey Scott Brown – Fast Forward
 * Toran Caudell – Max Is Missing
 * Noah Fleiss – A Mother's Prayer
 * Victor Rajas – Max is Missing
 * Shane Sweet – Indictment: The McMartin Trial

Best Performance by a Young Actress: TV Special
★ Sandee Van Dyke – The Judds
 * Kyndra Joy Casper – The Great Mom Swap
 * Robin Lynn Heath – The Stranger
 * Ashley Johnson – Annie: A Royal Adventure!
 * Laura Morgan – Love Can Build a Bridge

Best Performance by a Young Actor: TV Drama Series
★ Shawn Toovey – Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
 * Steven Hartman – The Bold and the Beautiful
 * Jonathan Jackson – General Hospital
 * Cirroc Lofton – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
 * Chaz Ryan – Days of Our Lives
 * Kyle Sabihy – The Bold and the Beautiful
 * Micheal Sullivan – Days of Our Lives
 * Billy Tolson – Walker, Texas Ranger

Best Performance by a Young Actress: TV Drama Series
★ Jessica Bowman – Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
 * Lacey Chabert – Party of Five
 * Yvonne Zima – ER
 * Erin Torpey – One Life to Live
 * Heather Tom – The Young and the Restless
 * Maitland Ward – The Young and the Restless
 * Courtney Peldon – Renegade

Best Performance by a Young Actor: TV Comedy Series
★ Benjamin Salisbury – The Nanny
 * Christopher Castile – Step by Step
 * Zane Carney – Dave's World
 * Will Estes – Kirk
 * Frankie J. Galasso – Hudson Street
 * Sam Gifaldi – Bless This House
 * Richard Lee Jackson – Saved by the Bell: The New Class
 * Matthew Lawrence – Brotherly Love
 * Nick Scoullar – The Anti-Gravity Room
 * Phillip Van Dyke – The Home Court
 * Jake Richardson – Fudge
 * Bobby E. McAdams II – Minor Adjustments

Best Performance by a Young Actress: TV Comedy Series
★ Nassira Nicola – Fudge
 * Danielle Fishel – Boy Meets World
 * Meghann Haldeman – The Home Court
 * Ashley Johnson – Maybe This Time
 * Sarah Lancaster – Saved by the Bell: The New Class
 * Tia & Tamera Mowry – Sister, Sister
 * Nicholle Tom – The Nanny
 * Madeline Zima – The Nanny
 * Lisa Rieffel – Women of the House
 * Maia Campbell – In the House
 * Natanya Ross – The Secret World of Alex Mack

Best Performance by a Young Actor: Guest Starring Role TV Series
★ Justin Thomson – Boy Meets World
 * Anthony Jesse Cruz – Baywatch
 * John Graas – Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
 * Richard Lee Jackson – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
 * Lucky Luciano – The Tonight Show
 * Chris J. Miller – Maybe This Time

Best Performance by a Young Actress: Guest Starring Role TV Series
★ Kim Cullum – Home Improvement
 * Kyndra Joy Casper – NYPD Blue
 * Erin J. Dean – Boy Meets World
 * Yunoka Doyle – Touched by an Angel
 * Lisa Rieffel – Brotherly Love
 * Krista Sherre Selico – Sister, Sister
 * Sabrina Wiener – Charlie Grace
 * Lisa Wilhoit – Walker, Texas Ranger

Best Performance by a Young Actor Under 10: Television
★ Ross Bagley – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
 * Spencer Treat Clark – Another World
 * Andrew Ducote – Dave's World
 * Andy Lawrence – Brotherly Love
 * Jacob Loyst – Sisters
 * Courtland Mead – Kirk
 * Haley Joel Osment – The Jeff Foxworthy Show
 * Jeffery Wood – In the House

Best Performance by a Young Actress Under 10: Television
★ Kaitlin Cullum – Grace Under Fire
 * Brittany Holmes – Ellen
 * Kylie Erica Mar – The Parent 'Hood
 * Camille Winbush – Minor Adjustments
 * Danielle Wiener – Diagnosis: Murder

Best Performance by a Young Actor: Voiceover Role
★ Malachi Pearson – Casper
 * Josh Keaton – Todd Lincoln
 * Chris Allport – The Donna Reed Show
 * Roland Thomson – The Revolutionary War

Best Performance by a Young Actress: Voiceover Role
★ Sarah Freeman – Toy Story
 * Rachel Miner – Orphan Train
 * Danielle Wiener – This Is America, Charlie Brown
 * Sabrina Wiener – Santo Bugito

Best Performances by a Young Ensemble: Feature Film or Video
★ The Baby-Sitters Club – Columbia Pictures/TriStar Pictures
 * Now and Then – New Line Cinema
 * Secret Adventures: Slam and Split – Taweel-Loos and Company
 * The Brady Bunch Movie – Paramount Pictures

Best Performance by a Young Ensemble: Television
★ The Secret World of Alex Mack – Nickelodeon
 * The Home Court – NBC
 * Sweet Valley High – Saban
 * Fudge – ABC
 * Are You Afraid of the Dark? – Nickelodeon

Best Professional Actress/Singer
★ Moriah Snyder
 * Brittany Murphy
 * Ivyann Schwan
 * Jennifer Love Hewitt

Best Professional Actor/Singer
★ Chris Allport
 * Frankie J. Galasso
 * Josh Keaton
 * Zachary McLemore

Best Family Animation Production
★ Animaniacs – Warner Brothers
 * The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon – Canadian TV
 * Doug – Nickelodeon
 * Siegfried and Roy – DIC
 * This Is America, Charlie Brown – Lee Mendelson

Best Family Feature: Action-Adventure
★ Jumanji – TriStar
 * The Amazing Panda Adventure – Warner Brothers
 * Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog – 20th Century Fox
 * Magic in the Water – Columbia-TriStar
 * Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain – Universal
 * Grizzly Mountain – Hemdale

Best Family Feature: Musical or Comedy
★ Toy Story – Walt Disney
 * Babe – Universal
 * Balto – Universal
 * Casper – Universal
 * Clueless – Paramount
 * Pocahontas – Walt Disney

Best Family Feature: Drama
★ Mr. Holland's Opus – Walt Disney
 * Apollo 13 – Universal
 * The Cure – Universal
 * The Indian in the Cupboard – Paramount
 * A Little Princess – Warner Brothers
 * Two Bits – Miramax

Outstanding Contribution to Youth Through Motion Pictures
★ Christopher Reeve – For his Inspiration to Youth

Outstanding Contribution to Youth Through Television
★ Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman – For Outstanding Family Television Series of the Year
 * Beth Sullivan – Executive Producer; Timothy Johnson – Producer; Chad Allen, Jessica Bowman, Shawn Toovey – Young Stars of the Series

Outstanding Contribution To Youth Through Entertainment
★ World Youth News – Kris Kollins and Mick Kollins

The power of video for kids is a message Mick and Kris Kollins want to get out to youth everywhere as well. After this father-and-son team saw studies showing that kids didn't like what they saw on the news—they felt all the stories were depressing and downbeat—they decided to create "World Youth News," a news program about kids, by kids from around the world.

Calling All Shooters The first step in a process that has already put six episodes of "World Youth News" on the air was to contact schools around the world and ask them to put up "Help Wanted" flyers on job bulletin boards. The resulting response has been incredible. And it's easy to see why: "World Youth News" pays 250 dollars for each story they use. According to Mick, that's no small potatoes in some countries.

"In Eastern Europe, for instance, an adult male takes home the equivalent of about 150 US dollars a month. And that's considered a good salary. Now you get his kid who comes up with a story, videotapes it and sends it to us and we use it, that kid's got 250 US dollars. Let me tell you, that kid is suddenly a real hero."

"It gives them a real sense of purpose and legitimacy," says Kris. "We make ID cards for them—press badges. Some of our kids have used those press badges to get into political rallies and things like that."

Gaining Exposure As of right now, "World Youth News" is on two different cable networks three times a week. Combined totals from both networks means WYN (pronounced "win") is currently in about 22 million homes. And that's just in the United States. European interest has been gaining steadily—20 countries are currently in negotiation. One, Saudi Arabia, has already placed an order for 26 episodes.

Success, however, has not been easy. "When we first finished the pilot, we took it to a lot of people and they simply didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't like anything they had seen before. It wasn't exactly a news show and it wasn't exactly some kind of entertainment. It was infotainment."

Still, Mick and Kris knew they were on to something. Says Mick: "The teen market is the largest market in the world, end of story. Last year, American teens, which number about 30 million, spent 57 billion dollars of their own money."

Says Kris: "Besides that, they are the most accessible group—the easiest to talk to. We've got it so they're the ones who are doing the shooting and they're the ones who are digesting that same information. We don't see a lot of good things for teens and we really wanted this to be one of the good things."

Making Plans But "World Youth News" is only part of their plan. As they expand, their intention is to create the World Youth Network.

"Right now," Mick says, "we have a mini-CNN in place. We've got shooters all over the world who are sending us stories and whom we can contact to go and get a story for us. Our ultimate goal, however, is to expand into the on-line arena and become a complete on-line service. That way, people can send their videos to us straight into our computers and the users out there can have direct access to that same information. We want to provide a service where the user can become a participant."

"Besides," says Kris, "we've got a lot of footage that people have sent to us that we haven't been able to use yet, and we're in the process of archiving it. When we're finished, we'll have this incredible library of footage that, with the right software, people from anywhere in the world will be able to look at, just as if they're going to the library."

Direct work with the kids who shoot for them has already been happening. In one case, they received three different tapes from London, England, all on similar stories. The problem was that each tape wasn't really complete. "One had good camera work," Mick explains, "but lousy writing. Another had good writing, but lousy camera work." So Mick and Kris put all three into contact with each other and sent them out as a team to get the story on unemployment that appears in the first episode of "World Youth News."

"It's very interesting to see how kids from different countries have different skills and different approaches. But that still doesn't make me think they're really that different. I think if you went into any kid's room in any country in the world, you wouldn't be able to tell what country you were in. They're all wearing Reeboks and Levi's. I think kids are essentially the same the world over and that's why this concept is so powerful."

Interested in participating? The rules for becoming a correspondent are simple: you can be any age, but the ideal age is somewhere between twelve and twenty-five; you must have access to a video camera; and you must have something important to say.

"Obviously," Kris emphasizes, "the better the shooter you are, the better chance you have of seeing your story on the air. We do all the editing and graphics and final post-production work, so just get the best stuff you can and remember, quality audio is extremely important." (copyright Videomaker Magazine)

Community Service Award
★ Special Olympics World Games 1995 – Kids TV – New Haven, Connecticut