I say it every year. The Dublin Smartphone Film Festival is very close to my heart. It embodies what I love about technology. Until the dawn of the smartphone, storytelling required expensive filming equipment, but now anyone can do it. This weekend marks the fifth year of the Dublin Smartphone Film Festival and it’s the biggest yet. Here’s what you can expect, along with info on how you can attend in person, or online.
The Film Festival Screenings
The Dublin Smartphone Film Festival is Ireland’s only International Film Festival dedicated to filmmakers exclusively using mobile devices; that’s mobile phones and tablets. Right at the heart of the 2022 festival is the screening schedule. Here, the very best mobile movie makers will have their work hit the big screen. Filmmakers from 15 countries will feature at the festival. Included are feature films (which is a first for the festival) and the premiere of the exciting documentary, Are Your Eyes Nicely Open?.
Festival Director Robert Fitzhugh says, “The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have brought about an incredible period of creativity with people forced to use the tools they have at their disposal to tell stories”.
The screenings will take place from 1 PM on April 30th, at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin City Centre and is an excellent way to spend your Saturday, whether you’re visiting Ireland or living here. You can pick up your ticket for just €6.50.
The Filmmaking Workshop
As if we couldn’t love the festival enough. Not only can you see what’s possible to shoot with a mobile, you can also learn how to do it yourself. From 10 AM on the morning of the festival, you can attend a workshop and get the tricks of the trade.
Fitzhugh says, “this is what the Dublin Smartphone Film Festival is here to do; to encourage the next generation of filmmakers to create their stories using their phones and to provide them with the widest possible platform to present these stories to a wider audience”.
Tickets for the workshop are €6.50 and are available on the IFI website.
Partnering With The Irish Film Institute
Taking to the big screen this year has been made possible by a brand new partnership. This partnership sees the Dublin Smartphone Film Festival team up with the Irish Film Institute. This partnership validates mobile movie making and is an amazing opportunity for the filmmaking community.
The festival team has worked for five years to build a community of mobile filmmakers and this is an exciting culmination of their efforts to finally bring these talented filmmakers to a wider audience.
Fitzhugh says, “This partnership with the IFI means we have an opportunity to showcase these filmmakers to a wider audience and a chance to legitimize their hard work”.
IFI’s Head of Education, Alicia McGivern outlines how the IFI is “is delighted to partner with DUBSMARTFF 2022, expanding our programme with work in a new format, and opening up our historic building as both screening venue and location to smartphone filmmakers. The collaboration gives us a chance to reach new audiences and to engage with next-generation filmmakers, inspired by the energy and creativity of the DUBSMARTFF team”.
The Online Option
Having attended the festival for the past few years, I absolutely recommend attending in person if you can. But there’s an online alternative. The Dublin Smartphone Film Festival will take place, in person, on the 30th of April 2022 at the Irish Film Institute. You can also attend online between May 1st to May 7th, with tickets available from the festival website.
