Indiewire and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are returning to the Locarno Film Festival for the third year with the Critics Academy. The initiative is a workshop, in partnership with Film Comment, for aspiring film critics that takes place during the festival (August 6-16). The program, which has a stateside component that takes place during the New York Film Festival, is designed to nurture promising film critics and journalists as they attend and cover screenings and events at the festival.

The Critics Academy will be comprised of 10 international young critics who will work on a daily basis, under the editorial guidance of Indiewire Chief Film Critic and Senior Editor Eric Kohn and Eugene Hernandez, Deputy Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Co-Publisher of Film Comment magazine. Participants will cover the festival with reviews of films in the lineup, articles on sidebar events, in-depth reflections on the various program sections, or interviews with the festival’s guests. Starting this year, the Critics Academy will also involve a significant number of Swiss participants, thanks to a collaboration with the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), the Association of Swiss Film Journalists, and the website Cineman.

Applications are now being accepted until the closing deadline on Sunday, May 25. Information on submissions can be found here.

First launched as an initiative during the Locarno Film Festival two years ago, the combination of candid discussions with working critics and other members of the industry—paired with experience covering cinema in a deadline-driven environment—has proven to be the right kind of fuel for the professionally minded critic to begin sketching out a career plan.