Scoil Ide Film Festival 2025 puts students’ creative talents on display

The fourth annual Scoil Ide Film Festival ran for the whole week in the school.

Great excitement was in the air again in Corbally when the time for the 2025 Scoil Ide Film Festival rolled around

The fourth annual Scoil Ide Film Festival ran for the whole week in the school. Children took a break from the usual schedule to spend time each day watching movies that they had made themselves.

The week culminated with the usual awards ceremony on a Friday afternoon to acknowledge some of the fantastic filmmaking, animating and acting talent on show.

This year’s festival had a new addition. After partnering with the Heritales International Heritage Film Festival, Scoil Ide went about creating an official Heritales projection space in the hall of the school. The projection space became the home of the Scoil Ide Film Festival 2025 launch event, which took the form of an animation showcase.

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Colm O Connor, the organiser of the festival and the launch event, said of the animation showcase, “We had the idea to showcase animations made by the talented pupils of the school alongside animations made by professional animators. We thought that this would give us the opportunity to connect our young, talented animators with the wider world of animation and give a nod of respect and acknowledgement to that world at the same time. Heritales presented us with that opportunity.”

Children from the animation club in the school were in attendance with their families. They were joined by special guests from Fresh Film and IFI and other pupils, parents, staff and board members. The show began in Scoil Ide’s cinema setting with a selection of international animations from the Heritales collection.

One of the audience favourites from this collection was the multi-award-winning short film “Addhumare” by Italian director Hermes Mangialardo. The movie told a love story from the South of Italy in the early 1900s. The audience was treated to an extra special moment when Hermes joined them via Zoom after the screening of his movie and spoke to Colm and the audience about his short film, the animation process and his other work.

As the evening progressed, the audience got a taste of the work of some local animators. Some animations by Mikey Mahon and Fiadh Browne, who were both present at the showcase, were included in the schedule. Mikey’s latest film, “Cinemaniacs” drew plenty of laughs in all the right places while his older animations “Autocorrect” and “Dreamzzz” were met with equal appreciation. Fiadh’s incredible mix of live action and animation left the crowd amazed and amused and dreaming of portholes to animated worlds. Both of these young animators, past pupils, joined Colm on stage for chats about their filmmaking journeys. They spoke about the filmmaking they did when they were in Scoil Ide, their Scoil Ide Film Festival award wins and their animating journey since, which has seen them come into contact with the likes of Screen Ireland and Brown Bag Films.

After another wonderful selection of Heritales international films, the evening was rounded off with a short reel of clips from the animation club workshops that have been running in the school. Past pupil, and one of the special guest animators at the showcase, Mikey Mahon, had lead these present pupils in a number of animation workshops. They took well-earned pleasure in watching their work showcased alongside their mentors.

Ray D’Arcy, principal of Scoil Ide, said of the showcase and animation club, “We are delighted to give the children the opportunity to work in any medium that works for them, and it is lovely to showcase their creativity within the school.”

Local artist and friend of Scoil Ide, Chelsea Canavan, was also in attendance. She said, “Scoil Ide have put on another outstanding creative project. These students and staff never cease to amaze me with their passion and wonderfully thoughtful, creative projects. This time, they have brought an international animation festival into the school and community to inspire the creative minds of their students and to encourage creative exchange and cultural learning. I found myself sitting amongst what is sure to be some of Ireland’s next generation of animators and filmmakers, and watching a series of beautiful and poignant animations by both [Scoil Ide] students and international filmmakers,  in what was a fantastic launch evening for “Heritales” in their halla.”

Ciarda Tobin of the Irish Film Institute, who also attended the showcase, said, “It was a wonderful night at the animation showcase at Scoil Íde as part of their festival and special partnership with the Heritales Heritage Film Festival. This student organised a celebration of filmmaking by and for children, marking a long-term commitment to creativity in the school. As Next Generation Manager at IFI, I love to see the work and creativity of young filmmakers as they start on their path into the world of filmmaking. It was inspirational to hear about Mikey and Fiadh’s journeys as young animators; I look forward to seeing what they will do next.”

Colm O Connor summed up the value of the event in saying, “It’s great for these young animators to get the recognition they deserve from their own community because they are working at such a high level. And to have them rubbing shoulders with the great international animators on a stage like this, and holding their own, is something that I hope they are very proud of.”