The European Film Festival Network Young Programmers for Young Audiences! or Young4Film for short successfully concluded its third year of activities in December 2025 with the support of the Creative Europe MEDIA programme. For the past three years, the network has been dedicated to its core mission: actively involving young programmers in shaping the programmes of six established international film festivals: Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Vilnius Short Film Festival, Piccolo Grande Cinema, Cinehill Film Festival and Valladolid International Film Week – Seminci.
Discover the 2025 Film Catalogue of Young Programmers' selections.
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In 2025, all participating festivals further developed their Young Programmers activities. Ten groups comprising a total of 98 Young Programmers came into existence in the international framework of Young4Film project in 2025. During the preselection process, they viewed 39 feature films (33 European productions or co-productions) and 48 short films (43 European productions or co-productions). As a result of the process, they selected 14 feature films (13 European productions or co-productions) and 29 short films (28 European productions or co-productions), which were presented as part of Young4Film member festivals official programme in 2025, either of the core festival event or as part of festivals’ year-long activities. 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. All selections are compiled in the Young Programmers’ catalogue, which is available online at the following link.
Explore the 2025 film catalogue curated by the Young Programmers.
A Major Milestone with the Launch of the First International Young Programmers Group
In May, the first international group of Young Programmers using the Moving Cinema methodology was formed. Each of the six film festivals in the Young4Film network invited two experienced Young Programmers to join the international group. The group of 12 met online throughout the summer 2025 to select a double-bill in which a film classic would be placed in dialogue with a contemporary film. Their selected program premiered in October at the Seminci festival and was presented live by the Young Programmers. The films chosen by the International Young Programmers were Murina by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović and The Promise by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
International Young Programmers at Seminci in October 2025.
Action Plan for including Sustainability and Social Awareness into the Moving Cinema Young Programmers methodology
Following the development of the Sustainability and Social Awareness Charter for Young Film Audiences in 2023 and 2024, the network has been working intensively on the strategies related to sustainability and environmental awareness, as well as on gender balance, inclusion, diversity, and representativeness. As a next step, the partners identified the need to integrate these principles directly into the Moving Cinema methodology, particularly in the work with Young Programmers. In 2025, the specialized subcontractor Kijufi, in collaboration with subcontractors A Bao A Qu and Meno Avilys, has developed an Action Plan for including Sustainability and Social Awareness into the Moving Cinema Young Programmers methodology. The action plan will be tested and implemented across all partner festivals and the International Young Programmers group in 2026. You are welcome to read a short excerpt from the Action Plan:
"By explicitly integrating questions of sustainability and social justice, we create a richer and more nuanced starting point for discussing film. This expanded perspective allows young audiences to explore not only individual stories and relationships but also the wider contexts—ecological, social, and ethical—that shape lives both on and off the screen. In doing so, film education can inspire a deeper awareness of interconnectedness and responsibility, equipping the next generation to engage thoughtfully with the pressing issues of our time.”
Building on this groundwork, the next generation of International Young Programmers has already begun putting these ideas into action. A second group of International Young Programmers embarked on their journey earlier in March. The group of 12 experienced participants, mentored by Martí Madaula (A Bao A Qu), is currently curating a programme focused on the theme of sustainability. Their final selection will be presented at the Cinehill Film Festival in Croatia in July 2027.
Y4F Festivals in 2026
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Vilnius Short Film Festival, Vilnius, Lithuania, 21-27 January 2026
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Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Belgrade, Serbia, 20-26 May 2026
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Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, Izola, Slovenia, 10-14 June 2026
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Cinehill Film Festival, Motovun, Gorski kotar, Croatia, 21-26 July 2026
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Valladolid International Film Week – Seminci, Valladolid, Spain, 23-31 October 2026
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Piccolo Grande Cinema, Milan, Italy, November 2026
See you there!
About Young4Film Festival Network
Our aim is to develop young 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 six European film festivals – Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival, Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Vilnius Short Film Festival, Piccolo Grande Cinema, Cinehill Film Festival and Valladolid International Film Week– Seminci - 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 AQu 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.
The Young4Film network is coordinated by Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival (Slovenia), network members are Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival (Serbia), Vilnius Short Film Festival (Lithuania), Piccolo Grande Cinema (Italy), Cinehill Film Festival (Croatia) and Valladolid International Film Week – SEMINCI (Spain).
Otok Institute, Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, and Ulica Prekomorskih brigad 8, 6310 Izola, Slovenia