Celebrating Milestones of the Young Programmers for Young Audiences! European Film Festival Network

In January 2023, we have created a network of European film festivals consisting of the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, the Vilnius Short Film Festival, Piccolo Grande Cinema and the Cinehill Film Festival (previously known as Motovun Film Festival). We embarked on a mission to reverse the established practice of programming for young audiences exclusively by adults and organized activities that actively involved young programmers in the creation of five established international film festivals, utilizing the already established Moving Cinema methodology, which has been developed since 2014 by the team of A Bao A Qu in collaboration with several international partners. After laying the groundwork, we are thrilled with what we have accomplished so far and motivated to continue our mission.

The main activity of the Young Programmers for Young Audiences! European Film Festival Network, or in short Young4Film Network, is having groups of Moving Cinema Young Programmers at festivals. In 2023, seven Young Programmers’ groups (77 Young Programmers in total) of different age selected 16 feature films and 11 short films which were presented as part of Young4Film member festivals official program in 2023. As part of their activities tailored to each festival context and following Moving Cinema Young Programmers methodology, they watched 41 feature films and 27 short films during the preselection process. As a result of the process, they selected 16 feature films and 11 short films, which were presented as part of Young4Film member festivals official program in 2023, either of the core festival event or as part of festivals’ year-long activities. Across the Young4Film partnership, a total number of 57 on-site public screenings of Young Programmers’ selections were organized in 2023 in Slovenia, Serbia, Lithuania, Italy, and Croatia. For all selections and public screenings, Young Programmers prepared various communication materials and realized live on-site introductions, in some cases they also prepared and led Q&A with filmmakers after the screenings.

Young Programmers are proud to present their film selections in an online catalogue, which you can see on the link and use it for your own film-education activities.

To better understand the creative processes and the work of every professional involved in filmmaking, Young Programmers have also produced digital pedagogical materials in form of video capsules:

• Maja Prettner, film director, produced by Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival: vimeo link
• Eva Cvijanović, film director, produced by Motovun Cinehill Film Festival: vimeo link
• Marko Grba Singh, artistic director and festival programmer, produced by Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival: vimeo link
• Andrius Blazevicius, programmer, produced by Vilnius Short Film Festival: vimeo link
• Festival director Egle Maceinaite, Vilnius Documentary Film Festival, produced by Vilnius Short Film Festival: vimeo link
• Elena Martin Gimeno, film director, produced by Piccolo Grande Cinema Film Festival: vimeo link
• Brando De Sica, film director, produced by Piccolo Grande Cinema Film Festival: vimeo link

In addition, we are developing pedagogical materials, available on the platform Inside Cinema. The main goal of Inside Cinema pedagogical materials is to explore the creative process of filmmaking with young film audiences in mind: from the initial ideas and notes to the post-production. We warmly invite you to explore the following materials:

• Girl Gang (Susanne Regina Meures, Switzerland, 2022)
• And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine (Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck, Sweden, Denmark, 2023)
• Hedgehog’s Home (Eva Cvijanović, Croatia, Canada, 2017)
• Muyeres (Marta Lallana, Spain, 2023)
• Die Donau (Jaume Claret Muxart, Spain, 2023)
• The Trip (Rimantas Oičenka, Lithuania, 2022)

Exciting Young4Film Festival Network’s activities in 2024

With a strong foundation laid in 2023, all the festivals in the network are eagerly driving our mission forward. Four festivals have already wrapped up their successful 2024 editions, with Piccolo Grande Cinema set to take place this November 9–17 in Milan, Italy. You are kindly invited to explore more about each festival through the following links: Vilnius Short Film Festival, Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, Cinehill Film Festival, Piccolo Grande Cinema.

From 19 to 22 March 2024, network partner Piccolo Grande Cinema Film Festival and Cineteca Milano as its producer hosted the second annual meeting of representatives of all Young4Film partners in Milan, Italy. The meeting deliberately coincided with the CinemaSarà Forum, the Italian national student consultation on the future of film and cinema, organized by Cineteca Milano. Representatives of the Young Programmers from Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Serbia participated in the moderated exchange on their experience collaborating with different festivals in the network, as well as in the consultation on the future of film and cinema as part of CinemaSarà Forum. Additionally, there was a public presentation of the activities of the Young4Film European Festival Network at the Interactive Film Museum (Museo Interattivo del Cinema) on 21 March 2024, attended by eighty students and teachers from all over Italy who participated in CinemaSarà Forum.

About Young4Film Festival Network

Our aim is to develop our audiences and promote European – especially non-national – films amongst the target groups of primary, secondary and university students. We entrust young programmers with the responsibility of becoming part of the festival teams, while their film programmes and promotional material are shared with young audiences at all the festivals within the network. The selected films are accompanied by original digital educational materials, which are made available to other film curators, film educators and teachers, ensuring that their reach extends beyond the Young4Film network and wider partnership. In addition to the five European film festivals, three cultural organisations working in the field of film education are also involved in the network’s activities: A Bao A Qu (Barcelona, Spain), Meno Avilys (Vilnius, Lithuania) and Kijufi (Berlin, Germany).

Our collaborative approach is based on the original Moving Cinema methodology, which has been developed since 2014 by the team of the Catalan organisation A Bao A Qu in collaboration with several international partners, with the aim of developing active young film audiences. It is precisely this past collaboration that has given us a shared understanding of the importance of developing young audiences and we will further build on our efforts in this area by considering the issues of sustainability, environmental awareness, balanced gender representation, inclusion, diversity and representativity.

The European project Young Programmers for Young Audiences! European Film Festival Network is coordinated by Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA and the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia.