Young4Film Network in 2023 and 2024: Key Achievements
European film festivals recognise the importance of cultivating loyal audiences, which is why we are increasingly developing programmes for young audiences. To reverse the established practice of programming for young audiences exclusively by adults, we have created a new network of European film festivals consisting of Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Vilnius Short Film Festival, Piccolo Grande Cinemaand Cinehill Film Festival.We have made it our mission to actively involve young programmers in the creation of all five established international film festivals and have named the network Young Programmers for Young Audiences! or Young4Film for short.
Our aim is to develop our audiences and promote European 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 and adult 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 Young4Filmnetwork 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 to engaging young programmers is based on the original Moving Cinemamethodology, which has been developed since 2014 by the team of A Bao A Qu in collaboration with several international partners.
Results and Impacts
The network’s mission is to actively involve young programmers in the creation of five established international film festivals, utilizing the established Moving Cinema methodology, which has been developed since 2014 by the team of A Bao A Qu in collaboration with several international partners. The Young4Film network thus as an act of sustainability reinvented results of previous projects co-financed by several Creative Europe MEDIA actions.
In 2023 and 2024, 19 groups of in total 227 Young Programmers came into existence in the international framework of Young4Film project. As part of their activities tailored to each festival context and following Moving Cinema Young Programmers methodology, Young Programmers watched 89 feature films (84 European productions or co-productions) and 112 short films (90 European productions or co-productions) during the preselection process. As a result of the process, they selected 33 feature films (30 European productions or co-productions) and 48 short films (42 European productions or co-productions), which were presented as part of Young4Film member festivals official program in 2023 and 2024, either of the core festival event or as part of festivals’ year-long activities. Across the Young4Film partnership, a total number of 117 on-site public screenings of Young Programmers’ selections were organized in 2023 and 2024 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. Take a look at the catalogues featuring Young Programmers’ film selections from 2023 and 2024.
Many selections by Young Programmers were also accompanied with digital pedagogical materials. You can take a look at the digital pedagogical materials from 2023 and 2024.
In 2023 and 2024, all Young4Film network partners consistently pursued a wide range of endeavours towards sustainable thinking and action in the context of their film festival activities – in social, ecological and economic terms. We are proud to announce that by the end of 2024, we have completed and published a pioneering Sustainability and Social Awareness Charter for Young Film Audiences. The Charter offers a dynamic framework that will be tested and adopted by all participating festivals in the next edition of the project (2025-2026) and beyond.