Hot screenings to watch now (Top 20)

What happens when an ordinary family, living just south of the Arctic Circle, bans all grocery store food from their house for one year?

First Cut welcomes short films of every genre by young people aged 12 to 18 from Ireland and abroad. The skill and imagination of young filmmakers shines through in the diverse and entertaining films that make up this programme.

t’s the journey of her life: Petra Nachtmanova journeys to both the end of the world and the centre of her heart. Saz on her back, the Berlin musician heads off in search of the origins of a string instrument tangled in myths, which found its way to her in (from?) the streets of Kreuzberg. She travels from Berlin to Istanbul, through Anatolia, over the snowy peaks of the Caucasus and into the dusty desert of eastern Iran. She meets Bosnian instrument makers, music teachers who climb mountains in suits and chain-smoking Turkmen who possibly invented blues rock. She has one request for each encounter: ‘Play me a song that I can take home with me’. First she meets skeptical amazement. Then enthusiasm. And finally, deep trust. "Saz" is a film about the power of music and the scope of the world, simultaneously a road movie and a quest for meaning, a breathtaking trip in the border region between Europe and Asia, which shows that despite conflict and crisis, there is a human everyday life out there, as well as something special that holds us together.

Microplastic Madness is an optimistic take on the local and global plastic pollution crisis as told through a refreshing urban youth point of view with an inspiring take action message.

Rodney Stotts is on a mission to build a sanctuary for injured birds of prey. A falconer guided by the healing power of nature, Rodney becomes the unlikely hero of a new environmental movement in his stressed Washington DC community.

The Curious Case of the Missing Shandon Bell is a unique three-episode crime mystery series created completely unscripted by the amazingly talented young people involved in The Kabin Studio and with cameo appearances by the two main stars of The Young Offenders, Alex Murphy and Chris Walley.

The opening programme of this year’s festival is an acknowledgment that 2020 has been a year like no other. With Covid-19 ravaging the world, a ‘new normal’ of worrying uncertainty has established itself in Ireland and across the globe.

As weird, awkward, and unreal enter into dialogue with the essential, this selection mixes media, languages, identities, and topics into an inspiring melange for the senses.

Animated short films nominated for the 2021 Oscars

In this 8 minute film Sir David Attenborough explains how, after centuries of clearing forests, we can ensure a future with more forests than any of us have ever known. What’s more it will make us all healthier and happier!

The story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future. Q&A immediately following screening with Filmmaker & Scientist Christi Cooper, Co-Lead Counsel Phil Gregory, and Alaskan Federal Plaintiff Nathan Baring. Moderated by Brad Forder, Director of Programming, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital (DCEFF).