Science Fair
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ANDY’S RATING: ★★★★ In cinemas on Friday
THE nerds get their moment in this big-hearted documentary about the “Olympics” of high school science competitions.
The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is a longrunning event where 1,700 brainboxes from 78 countries compete for $75,000.
We begin with floppy-haired 14-year-old Jack Andraka bawling like a Miss World winner as he takes to the stage at the 2012 ceremony.
The lad has invented a widget that detects early stage pancreatic cancer, but his expression suggests he’s crying for himself. And why not? He deserves it.
All those times he resisted the pull of a bottle of warm cider down the local park suddenly feel justified.
Directors Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster travelled the world to find equally fascinating kids competing for the 2017 contest, including a computer genius with dreadful school reports and a Hawaiian shirt fixation, a poor Brazilian girl with a possible cure for the Zika virus and a funny German lad who may have just re-invented the aeroplane.
We also meet Dr Serena McCalla, a Long Island teacher who has pushed nine Asian kids to the finals.
She puts her record down to the working culture of US immigrants and the 14 hours a day she dedicates to her students.
The kids are great, but the good doctor deserves a spin-off.