Discovery Film Festival ()

Festival start: 21 October 2023      Festival end: 05 November 2023

Discovery Film Festival: Scotland's International Film Festival For Young Audiences

Sat 21 October – Sun 5 November 2023

Discovery Film Festival is now in its twentieth anniversary year. Based at Dundee Contemporary Arts, and touring to partner venues throughout Scotland, the UK and Ireland, the festival screens films from all over the world which have been specially programmed for young audiences.

The festival includes three exciting weekends of films, creative activities, and gala events, as well as two weeks of screenings and events for schools.

Discovery aims to develop new audiences for the best in international film, improve media literacy and offer young audiences an insight into the lives of children and young people in other cultures. The festival has been running since 2004 when it was started as a partnership with Dundee Education Development Department, Scottish Screen and DCA.

Discovery Film Festival is a DCA project and is organised by Mike Tait, Festival Producer and Cinema Youth Development Officer. A team of Young Ambassadors (aged 15-19) work with Mike to programme films and advise on the overall design of the festival. A team of teachers and education consultants advise on the education programme and create Curriculum for Excellence relevant resources for classes visiting the festival.

Discovery would like to thank Creative Scotland and Dundee City Council for their ongoing support.

If you would like to support Discovery, become a partner venue or just get involved, email Mike on mike.tait@dca.org.uk.

The festival is non-competitive.

DISCOVERY FILM FESTIVAL 2023

www.discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk

This year’s festival will be the 20th anniversary edition, running from Saturday 21st October to Sunday 5th November 2023.

The festival offers the best in contemporary world cinema for children and young people, from the age of three upwards, both features and shorts.

We are particularly interested in short films of up to ten minutes in length that will engage and speak directly to a young audience. Language-free is our preference, though films subtitled in English will also be considered.

The festival is non-competitive.

The festival works with both schools and the general public. Our schools programme offers specially designed educational resource materials for pre- and post-screening activities in the classroom (see examples at www.discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk/resources), and our public programme will create practical creative workshops to accompany key titles in the festival. Our festival is therefore very much created for its audiences, rather than having an industry focus.

In terms of this year’s festival, our programming is just now starting up so submissions can be made from late January. Our programme is finalised in early July, so we have a submission deadline of Friday 30th June 2023 for this year’s selection.

Direct contact, including questions and requests for clarification, can be made to Mike Tait, Festival Producer, via mike.tait@dca.org.uk.