The Fantastic Flix Young Film Programmers is a new initiative from the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. It is made of 6 bright young 15-19-year-olds who have been watching a longlist of short films and curating their selection. They will also be selecting their Young Programmers Choice from the Festival’s expanded list of certified films both in Fantastic Flix and the main Festival programme which will include:

• Dub Daze
• Gaza
• The Merger
• Ballon
• The Public
• The Man who Feels no Pain
• This Crazy Heart
• Rafiki
• Eighth Grade

The Young Programmers are given the chance to understand all aspects of film programming, marketing, exhibition and distribution, giving them the opportunity to curate, host and influence the Fantastic Flix strand.

Over the course of their programme they have discussed their opinions on youth representation and diversity both in front of and behind the screen. Young Programmers is developed with the support of INTO Film, Film London and the Arts Council.

The 2019 Young Programmers are:

Sagal Adan, Croi Lenihan, Caitlin Barry, Ifunanya Chukwuewuzie, Sally Howard Ihle, Gaurav Ramsurn

Fantastic Flix Shorts Programme:

Ant
Director: Julia Ocker / Producer: Thomas Meyer-Hermann / Germany / 4mins
The ants are working together perfectly. But there is one ant who is doing everything differently.

The Bird and the Whale
Director: Carol Freeman / Ireland
The Bird and the Whale is a story about a young whale struggling to find his voice. After straying too far from his family to explore a shipwreck, he discovers its sole survivor, a caged songbird. Together they struggle to survive lost at sea.

Sloth
Director: Julia Ocker / Producer: Thomas Meyer-Hermann / Germany / 4mins
The sloth wants to buy ice cream, but unfortunately he is way too slow.

Two Balloons
Mark C. Smith / Producer: Mark C. Smith, Adam C. Sager / 9 mins
Two adventurous lemurs navigate their dirigibles halfway around the world to a place where happenstance and fate threaten to disrupt their reunion.

The Overcoat
Director: Meelis Arulepp and Sean Mullen / Producer: Jonathan Clarke / Ireland / 30mins
An adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s classic tale, “The Overcoat” takes the form of a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his granddaughter about a lonely office worker who saves up to buy a new coat at Christmas in an effort to make new friends, only for fate take a ghostly hand.

Book tickets for Fantastic Flix Shorts here.

Shorts Before Features:

Bog Hole - playing before Los Bando
Director: Torfinn Iversen / Producer:Julia Andersen / Norway / 14 mins
Two young girls have to put their difficulties on hold when one of them get stuck in a bog hole. The beginning of a wonderful friendship.

Carlotta’s Face - playing before This Crazy Heart
Director: Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld / Producer: Fabian Driehorst / Germany / 5 mins
As a child, Carlotta didn’t expect the people around here to have faces. She even doesn’t recognize her own face. Years later, she learns about a rare, untreatable deficit of her brain. It was art, after all, that offered her a way to finally recognize herself.

The Wiremen - Playing before Land of Glass
Director: Jessica Patterson / Producer: Dave Minogue / Ireland / 9 mins
When electricity is first brought to rural Ireland, a young girl believes this new power is in fact a faerie who has entered her home with ‘the Light’. Her attempts at capturing this magical visitor unwittingly cause a blackout and ultimately summon the sinister creatures who haunt the surrounding countryside, the keepers of the Light.

Doctor of Monsters - before Alone in Space
Director Gustavo Teixeira / Producer: Daniel Mascarenhas / Mexico / 11 mins
Dudu has already chosen his future profession: doctor of monsters. Now he will have to face his fears to make his dream come true.

First Disco - before Rafiki in Dundrum
Director: Helen O’Reilly / Producer: David Christopher Lynch / Ireland / 18 mins
It’s 1983 and Kelly Harrison is not only experiencing her first crush, she’s going to her first disco. There’s just one problem - she’s getting train tracks before her big night out.

Jass - before Rosie & Moussa
Director: Meg Elwood / Producer: Cristina Pulber / Ireland / 13 mins
Animals are being hunted out and killed by humans who fear they are becoming too intelligent and now pose a threat to mankind. Huebert, using the guise of an 'ANIMALS OUT' officer, smuggles animals to safety. Dan, Huebert’s brother, who works for the 'ANIMALS OUT' task force, poses the biggest threat to Huebert as he grows suspicious of Huebert’s actions. Huebert put his life in danger when he finds a small fox cub, Jass, who is in need of rescuing. Hiding Jass away in his home right under the nose of Dan, Huebert must act fast if he is to find a safe place for Jass and keep his brother from finding his secret.