The Irish Film Institute have announced the programme for this year’s Family Festival. Tickets are on sale now for the IFI Family Festival 2024, running in-cinema from Friday, August 23rd to Sunday, August 25th. This year the festival will include a special homegrown celebration, as Dublin’s own animators Brown Bag Films mark their 30th anniverary. Throughout the weekend there will be shorts, features and events for all.
Sharing international animation, interesting educational events and encouraging an early enthusiasm for film, the Family Festival is always a fun, friendly time for viewers of all ages, and a great day out in town with the return to school lurking around the corner. The 2024 edition of the festival opens on Friday 23rd August with hilarious animated feature Fox & Hare Save the Forest, suitable for those aged 4+ and directed by Mascha Halberstad. The film sees best friends Fox and Hare set out to find their pal Owl, and also prevent a lake from overflowing and flooding the forest. Before the opening film, IFI Education will host an event in the IFI Foyer from 17.15, including some fun, hare-raising activities with artist Orla Mellon, RTÉ Kids Presenters, and the Irish Wildlife Trust.
“This year’s festival has something for all young viewers, from the first time cinema goer, to the older manga fan. A highlight is Berlinale Generation KPlus Crystal Bear winner, It’s Okay!, which blends traditional Korean drumming and dancing with a truly heartfelt story of resilience. Enjoy the last of the summer weekends with some real film fun.“
Alicia McGivern, IFI Head of Education
Screening on Saturday 24th are the popular short film programmes – Short Tales 1 at 11.00 and 11.05 features a variety of mostly dialogue-free shorts suitable for children aged 4+, including German short Master Painter Ernst, while Short Tales 2 at 13.00 allows children aged 8+ to dive into gorgeous live action and animation, featuring titles such as Irish short Scrumpy. The 11.05 screening of Short Tales 1 will be a relaxed screening, in association with As I Am, Ireland’s Autism Charity.
Animated adaptation Kensuke’s Kingdom, directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry and featuring the voice-acting talents of Cillian Murphy, Sally Hawkins, and Ken Watanabe, screens on Saturday 24th at 15.30. Adapted from the book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, it centres on a schoolboy who finds himself shipwrecked on a desert island, with only his dog Stella and an old Japanese soldier for company. Before and after the screening, the IFI will be hosting some greenscreen fun, so join them to show off your own desert island essential items!
Kim Hye-young’s heartfelt coming-of-age drama It’s Okay!, suitable for audiences age 10 and up, screening on Saturday 24th at 18.00, follows a young dance student as she is taken in by her perfectionist school choreographer after the loss of her mother, and the two develop a friendship, and come to terms with what life has thrown at them together.
On Sunday 28th, Brown Bag Films joins the IFI Family Festival for a very special, fun-filled celebration of their 30th anniversary, suitable for ages 6+, and screening at 11.00. The programme features their Oscar®-nominated short animations Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, alongside episodes of favourite shows Karma’s World, Lu & The Bally Bunch, and Dee & Friends in Oz, and is followed by a Meet the Animators session.
German live-action feature Greetings from Mars screens on Sunday 28th at 13.30, and is suitable for film fans aged 8+. The film follows Tom, a little boy who finds change difficult and whose biggest dream is to go on a mission to Mars, adjust to living with his grandparents with the help of a logbook gifted by his mother to help prepare for his future missions to the Red Planet.
Closing the festival on Sunday 28th at 16.15 is The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store, also suitable for those 8+, an animated adaptation of an award-winning manga series which sees Akino, the new concierge-in-training at the upmarket shop, learn to serve the range of extinct animals who shop there.
Tickets for screenings at the festival cost €7.00 each. Family tickets are available too, which cover 2 adults, 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children and cost €23.00.
See the full schedule for the IFI Family Festival 2024 below.
Friday, August 23rd, 17.15 – Opening Event
Friday, August 23rd, 18.30 – Fox & Hare Save the Forest (4+)
Saturday, August 24th, 11.00 + 11.05 (relaxed screening) – Shorts 1 (4+)
Saturday, August 24th, 13.00 – Shorts 2 (8+)
Saturday, August 24th, 15.30 – Kensuke’s Kingdom (IFCO Rating: PG)
Saturday, August 24th, 18.00 – It’s Okay! (10+)
Sunday, August 25th, 11.00 – Brown Bag Films Celebrate 30 Years! (6+)
Sunday, August 25th, 13.30 – Greetings from Mars (8+)
Sunday, August 25th, 16.15 – The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store (8+)