In the runup to its official programme launch, the 24th Dublin International Film Festival has announced an unmissable Shorts and Silent Programme for any and all film fans. Running from the 19th of February to March 1st, the 2026 rendition of Dublin’s biggest film festival is stacked with 48 new and innovative shorts from emerging and established directors, as well as homages to the natal days of cinema with five silent films, two of feature length and three shorts. It is affordable for students with multiple pricing options. Each screening can be individually paid for, with prices ranging from €10.50 to €14, or a 6/12 ticket-bundle discount can be purchased, starting from €67. For diehard cinephiles a student pass can be purchased for €225, which includes priority booking, tickets to every regular screening and more. The majority of the screenings will be taking place in the Light House Cinema, a 25 minute walk from Trinity’s campus.
The Shorts Programme, put together by Aisha Bolaji, Penn Bálint and Pia Roycroft, consists of six screenings, each showing between five to eleven short films. These are: NTA (National Talent Academy for Film & Television) Shorts on February 20th, two Screen Ireland screenings on February 21st, and three themed DIFF screenings: “The Kids Are Alright”, “How You See Me”, and “Isn’t It Fantastic?”, on February 25th, 26th and 27th respectively. The diversity of topical, thought-provoking and nuanced themes at this year’s selection proves that shorts give filmmakers room to delve into niche topics with a high level of detail. The vast array of stories for 2026’s submissions deal with questions of immigration, free will, abortion, homophobia, mental health struggles, gender conformity, grief, and escapism and more, expressed through a range of imaginative narrative devices, from fantastical allegories to body horror.
The majority of this year’s submissions are from exciting first-time directors, but there are also some from acclaimed creatives that are worth keeping an eye out for. Kathryn Ferguson, director of two documentaries, Nothing Compares (2022) and Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes (2024), has a short film Nostalgie, which will be featured in the “How You See Me” screening, about an irrelevant 1980s Britpop star, who discovers a shocking truth at an event in Northern Ireland. Joe Hsieh, the winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Jury Award for Animation in 2022 for Night Bus (2019), has an animated submission, Praying Mantis, in the “Isn’t It Fantastic?” screening. It is a disturbing tale of a mutated praying mantis who attempts to save her amphibious child by murdering men. Many other animated shorts are featured in this year’s programme, which is very important for such an underrated and overlooked medium. Paul ó Muiris’s Meteroic is one, appearing in Screen Ireland Shorts 1, which tells an analytical story about a contemporary crisis – the commodification of art and celebrities.
DIFF 2026 looks to the future with these refreshing new films, but it also looks back to the past, showing newly restored silent era hits with the Silent Programme. The feature film The Inhuman Woman (1924) will be showcased in the Droichead Arts Centre in Drogheda on the February 21st, and in the Light House on the 22nd. The second feature, The Garden of Eden (1928), will be showcased in both locations on February 28th, and the Silent Comedy Shorts will be screened on March 1st in the Light House, featuring the iconic silent era comedy stars Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and Harold Lloyd in their respective films, Cops (1922), Two Tars (1928), and Never Weaken (1921). This Silent Programme is a must-see for any and all film lovers since silent films are an often neglected film era for modern audiences. The main reason for this is the misconception associated with the misleading adjective “silent”, since although these films have no audible dialogue, the live music that accompanied the viewing of these films was a crucial component, with the tensions, emotions, and humour of these films purposely evoked through its score, rendering dialogue unnecessary as meaning was successfully evoked through visuals and music alone. DIFF offers the original and authentic experience of watching a silent film, since the 2026 Silent Programme features live accompaniment from esteemed composers Meg Morley, Stephen Horne, and Michael Holohan, and commended percussionist Frank Bockius. Just as Laurel needs Hardy, silent era films need their live score to be fully appreciated.
The combination of shorts and silent films makes perfect sense when examining the history of cinema. The first films, most famously those of the pioneering Lumiére Brothers and Georges Méliès, were only a few minutes long, with the majority of films only reaching up to around 15 minutes during the early 20th Current Era. With the DIFF 2026 Shorts and Silent Programme, audiences can now track the evolution of the short film in a few sittings, visually and audibly witnessing how this new artform has changed in its first century of existence.
