The Guardian Young Arts Critic Competition 2008

Fancy yourself as a critic?
Then enter the Guardian’s young arts critic competition and tell us what inspires, provokes or baffles you about your favourite art form, be it the new Batman film, Dizzee Rascal at Leeds, the BBC’s latest drama, or one of this year’s Proms
The competition
Our judges - including broadcasters David Attenborough and Lauren Laverne, architect Zaha Hadid, musician and broadcaster Mylene Klass, playwright Roy Williams, choreographer Matthew Bourne, film director and founder of Film Club Beeban Kidron, artist Gavin Turk, and head of Arts Council England, Alan Davey - will be looking for powerful, persuasive voices, with original opinions and a flair for expressing them.

Are you passionate, knowledgable, curious and ruthless? Can you get all those qualities across in dazzling prose? If so, write a 350-word review and send three copies to us, with an application form, before August 29 this year.

For top tips on how to write a review (or look at a painting, or listen to a concert), click the button on the left and read advice from the Guardian’s critics. We’ve also put together some useful information on free or discounted events across the UK - click the Going Out button for links.

The competition will be judged in eight categories - film, pop, classical music, theatre, TV, dance, visual art, and architecture.

You should review something new or recent in those fields (though we’ll make an exception for architecture, which can be new or old). Your review might have appeared in a school magazine or local paper (but not before January this year), but should not have been published in a national newspaper or website.

Each category will be judged in two age groups - under 14s and 14-18-year-olds.

The 16 finalists will win a £25 National Book Token, a Guardian young critic certificate, and have their review published on guardian.co.uk.

One overall winner - the most promising critic - will also attend an event with a Guardian critic and write about it for G2.

So go on, get writing - and it could be your name everyone sees on these pages
How to enter
An application form is available to download from this website, and can be photocopied. See links on the left
Deadlines
The deadline for entries to the Guardian young arts critics competition is Friday August 29 2008
Terms and conditions
If you enter the competition this means that you accept the competition terms and conditions (the rules of the competition). You should make sure you read the terms and conditions before you send us your entry. If you are under 18, you should check with your parent or guardian that they are happy for you to enter the competition based on these Terms and conditions

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