The 2025 edition of Timpetill, the children and youth section of the Cinehill festival, took place from 23 to 26 September in Delnice (Croatia), concluding another edition of the young programmers workshop, held as part of the Young4Film Network

Cinehill’s program for children and youth takes place following the Festival, as a separate section that strives to develop the interest in the wealth of European stories and languages among young audiences. The program includes the collaboration with all regional schools in Gorski Kotar.

Starting with 2023, its programming has been done by film students from Croatian academies and other study programs focusing on film, as part of the YOUNG PROGRAMMERS workshop. The participants in the 2025 festival programming workshop were students from Vern University and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.

The workshop took place in the months leading up to the festival, during which the participants viewed preselected films, followed by meetings and joint discussions about the seen titles. The discussions focus on various aspects of the selection process, dilemmas, artistic and social value of the films and their stories, how they fit into the target program, and the logistics of the selection process. The final line-up included feature and short films from all over Europe, spanning fiction, animation and documentary forms, as well as a variety of styles.

Young audiences are crucial for a strong and rich European cinema, while the importance of developing an involved and dedicated audiences is also recognized by European festivals, which are continuously working to improve the existing programs for young people, as well as developing new ones. However, it is the established practice for adults to handle film selection for young audiences. With the mission of reversing this practice and creating festival programs for young people and children, five established European festivals have joined forces and created a new network: Young Selectors for Young Audiences! (Young Programmers for Young Audiences!), with the shorter name Young4Film.

The network’s goal is to develop festival audiences and promote European – especially non-national – films among primary and secondary school children and university students. The focus of the Young4Film project is the inclusion of young selectors in the festival team, where they participate in creating the festival program aimed at young audiences at all festivals within the network.

In addition to the festival programming workshop that preceded the festival, whose participants were young students, the audience itself, namely students from local elementary schools, also participated in the festival’s activities. The young jury members honed their analytical and critical skills by attending the entire festival program, and after each screening, they participated in brief discussions about the films they had watched.
There were also activities for the youngest. After a screening of Croatian animated shorts (ages 5+), first-grade students had the opportunity to learn how animated films are made, how optical toys work, and each of them created their own animation at the end as part of the festival workshop.

YOUNG SELECTORS – the program was created by students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and Vern University. Their work involved watching preselected films, followed by meetings and joint discussions about the films viewed, as well as various aspects of selection, dilemmas, the artistic and social value of films and their stories, their suitability for the target program, and the logistical aspects of the selection process.

YOUNG JURY – students from regional schools in Gorski Kotar participated in evaluating the final program; they followed the entire program and attended short sessions discussing the seen films at the end of each day. The winner was decided by a young jury of seventh-grade students from Elementary School I. G. Kovačić team: Dijana Crnković, Ivona Dlab, Majda Kezele, Aleksandra Klepac, Rita Rudolf, and Ena Šamec.

YOUNG ANIMATORS – an animation workshop was held as part of the program, aimed at first and second-grade students. The participants commented on the animated film program for the youngest viewers and learned the basics of making animated films. After the screening of short Croatian animated films (ages 5+), first-grade students had the opportunity to learn how animated films are made, how optical toys work, and each of them created their own animation at the end.

TALKS WITH THE AUDIENCE – At the end of each screening, there was a discussion with the young audience, led by Lucas Legović, one of the selectors and participants in the festival programming workshop. In a conversation with the audience, the students shared their impressions and insights about the film, learned more about the reasons for choosing the films they watched, and discussed the themes the film addressed.

The Young4Film project is supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-programme and the Croatian Audiovisual Center, in collaboration with the Kino Otok International Film Festival (Slovenia), the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival (Serbia), the Vilnius International Short Film Festival (Lithuania), the Piccolo Grande Cinema festival (Italy), and the A Bao A Qu program (Spain).

Film program

Young Programmers 2025: Vedran Benja, Mihaela Bačić, Iva Jauk, Lucas Legović, Iva Sokačić, and Noah Sudelija

This year’s line-up, selected by our Young Programmers, featured six feature films and 17 short films from all parts of Europe, taking its young audiences on various adventures, addressing along the way the problems and topics faced by the youngest members of our society. Croatian short films were presented in two programs created for two different age groups: for pre-schoolers and first-form pupils still to young to follow subtitles (5+), as an introduction to the world of film, and for older viewers (13+), as a way to get closer to the short film form and stories they rarely have the opportunity to see on the big screen. These are short films for young people (13+) that deal with big themes from the most diverse perspectives.

The films screened at Radnički dom in Delnice, where adults enjoyed the screenings alongside the children.

FULL LIST OF SELECTED FILMS

FEATURES

• Chaos Sisters, Mike Marzuk, DE, BE, 100′
• Queen of Dancing in Hollywood, Aurora Gossé, NO, 87’
• Tales from the Magic Garden, David Sukup, Leon Vidmar, Patrik Pass Jr., Jean-Claude Rozec, CZ, SK, SI, FR, 71′
• Block 5, Klemen Dvornik, SI, CZ, HR, RS, 79’
• Savages, Claude Barras, CH, FR, BE, 86’
• Circusboy, Julia Lemke, Anna Koch, DE, 86′

SHORTS FOR YOUTH (13+), HR, 75′

• Then I See Tanja, Juraj Lerotić, 2010, 34’28”
• All About the Kids, Luka Rukavina, 2015, 17′
• Snitch, Rino Barbir, 2019, 19′

SHORTS FOR THE YOUNGEST, HR, 60′

• Jedrenjak na kraju ulice, Lucía Aimara Borjas, 2025, 8′
• Jež Bodljikavko, Tihoni Brčić, 2020, 6’47”
• Vrlo mokra noć u muzeju, Milan Trenc, 2018, 4′
• Krila za krokodila, Ivana Guljašević Kuman, 2018, 5′
• Crni vuk, bijeli vuk, Ivana Guljašević Kuman, 2020, 5′
• Kuc kuc, Ivana Guljašević Kuman, 2019, 4′
• Tajni vrt, Filip Gašparović Melis, 2024, 4′
• Medo Trapavko, Tomislav Gregl, 2017, 8’30”

PRE-SELECTED FEATURE FILMS

• Dancing Queen, Aurora Gossé
• Block 5, Klemen Dvornik
• Max and the Senior Squad, Winfried Oelsner
• Maya, Give Me a Title, Michel Gondry
• Chaos Sisters, Mike Marzuk
• Savages, Claude Barras
• We Are the Best, Lukas Moodysson
• Tales from the Magic Garden, David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar, Jean-Claude Rozec
• Sandbag Dam, Čejen Černić Čanak
• Juniors, Hugo P. Thomas
• I Accidentally Wrote a Book, Nóra Lakos
• Dancing Queen in Hollywood, Aurora Gossé, NO, 87’
• Circusboy, Julia Lemke, Anna Koch