Festival team

It’s the experience, commitment and passion of our staff team that enables the Dublin International Film Festival to thrive in challenging times, bringing you the best of Irish and international cinema, together with an outstanding programme of talks and events, year after year.

Gráinne Humphreys
Festival Director
Gráinne has worked in film programming for over 20 years; she started her career working with young audiences with the Junior Dublin Film Festival in 1994. In 1995 she joined the IFI as Education Officer and expanded her role to include programming seasons on Andy Warhol, Agnès Varda and Harold Pinter. She became Assistant Director in 2001 and programmed both the Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Festival and the Dublin French Film Festival from 2002 to 2007. Among other projects, she co-edited Ireland into Film, a series of publications on a number of key Irish films. She has served as a jury member on several international film festivals and has coordinated numerous Irish film seasons at international events. She is a Board Member of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris and has been Festival Director of the Dublin International Film Festival since 2007.
Sam Javid
Head of Marketing & Commercial
Sam looks after the development of the festival’s partnerships and audiences, finding fresh and exciting ways of collaborating and introducing more people to the festival. Prior to this, Sam was the Creative Director of The Culture Trust, Luton (UK), an entrepreneurial arts charity developing and delivering programmes across multiple venues and sites. Sam has worked extensively across the UK developing and delivering creative and cultural programmes and audience engagement initiatives: including with Leicester Comedy Festival, Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, Journeys Festival International and Liberty EU. Sam is a seasoned fundraiser and has built income strategies that connect across public funding, private commissions, sponsorship, donations, co-productions and charitable grants.
Karen English
Festival Administrator
Karen joined Sony Pictures in 1998 and since then has held several roles covering finance, operations, administration and publicity. Following a number of years of freelance work within the distribution industry she joined the Festival team in November 2020.
Carole Lakes
Accounts Officer
Carole is a Chartered Accountant working for many years in the Retail Sector including Switzers and Brown Thomas. I started working in the Arts Sector joining the Dublin Fringe Festival in May 2019 and the Dublin International Film Festival in December 2019.

Festival 2024 Team

Stuart Anderson
Production Manager
Anna Gryaznova
Events Co-Ordinator
Peggy McHale
Junior Programmer & Admin Assistant
Esraa Ellaithy
Development & Marketing Manager
Aoife Maguire
Digital Marketing Executive
Conor Hogan
Box Office Manager
Jack Quinn
Assistant Box Office Manager
Vanessa Byrne
Box Office
Declan McSteen
Technical Manager
Kieran Fitzgerald
Technical Manager
Kate Bowe
Festival Publicist
Melanie Mullan
Marketing & Press Executive
Aoife McGlynn
Hospitality Assistant
Sarah Murphy
Hospitality Manager