This year’s Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) will see the launch of a new relationship with one of the Festival’s long-time collaborators with the announcement that the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) is to become the official Education Partner to Ireland’s most significant celebration of the best of Irish and international cinema.

IADT, which is based in Dún Laoghaire, is home to the National Film School (NFS), internationally recognised for producing Oscar, Emmy, BAFTA and IFTA‑winning and nominated alumni, and named by Variety as one of its Top Film Schools in 2020. IADT students have participated in competitions, student panels and talent development programmes at the Festival for many years. IADT is also a founding member of FilmEU, a European University for the Creative Industries and a supporter of this partnership. The new agreement will see IADT and DIFF expand their relationship over the next two years to include student and graduate student showcase opportunities within the festival programme, industry bursaries, and access to masterclasses, panels, and funding and networking forums.

“We’re really excited about this new relationship with the Dublin International Film Festival as it will allow IADT to enhance our engagement with an event that is not only a major festival of film but also an important meeting point for artists and professionals working in the film and screen industries, here in Ireland, but also globally,” said David Smith, IADT’s President.

 “It will benefit our students with a stronger integration of industry-facing learning in the National Film School, increase the national and international visibility of IADT’s students, its graduates, and the programmes we offer. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to formalise what has been a close relationship over the years with many of our 10,000 plus alumni working in the screen and creative industries, which contribute significantly to the creative economy, both in Ireland and internationally,” he added.

The new relationship is one DIFF sees as a natural progression in the close working collaboration it’s had with IADT and its students and graduates in recent years, and one that the education partner designation details more extensively.

 “We see this new partnership as an exciting one that builds on our established relationship with IADT and its students, but with the creation of a more structured cooperative agreement, it allows us to deliver a more strategic and mutually beneficial framework for collaboration together that we know will benefit both the Festival and IADT into the future,” said Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director, Dublin International Film Festival.