Knowledge Centre
YouthRIFF is not just a festival – it is also a platform for film education and cultural literacy throughout the year. In collaboration with preschools and primary schools, community centres, and organisations across the country, we offer workshops, courses, and film programmes that are useful both within and outside of school.
Every year, YouthRIFF sends a carefully curated short film programme to all preschools and primary schools across the country, along with specially designed support materials that help teachers use the films in their teaching. The films address themes such as equality, inclusion, human rights, empathy, and environmental issues. The support materials are built on international standards and designed to facilitate discussion before, during, and after screenings. In 2025, around 2,900 children watched the UngRIFF short film programme.
Norden i skolen
YouthRIFF is a member of NoJSe – a collaboration between the five leading children's and youth film festivals in the Nordic countries: UngRIFF in Iceland, Buster in Denmark, BFF in Norway, BUFF in Sweden, and Oulu in Finland. Together we select and create a film programme of outstanding Nordic short films and feature films, all translated, subtitled, or dubbed.
The films are made available to Icelandic teachers through Norden i skolen – a Nordic educational platform featuring film content and support materials specifically designed for teaching. Films and teaching resources can be accessed there free of charge.
Courses and Workshops
Kids on Film!
RIFF (and later UngRIFF) has long offered general filmmaking courses for children and young people, taught by professionals from the film industry. The courses have been held in Reykjavík and across the country, in collaboration with primary schools, municipalities, or other children's cultural festivals.
Girls on Film!
In the women's year of 2015, RIFF offered Girls on Film! a course for the first time, as many contributing factors make girls and queer young people less likely than boys to try their hand at filmmaking and make their voices heard. Since then, a number of Girls on Film! courses have been held over the years across the country. Girls on Film! aims to correct this gender imbalance by offering an inclusive space where girls (cis and trans), trans boys, non-binary, and intersex young people have the opportunity to develop their skills and connect with role models.
Micro-workshops
The course is aimed at young people between the ages of 11 and 16. The fundamentals of filmmaking are covered and participants create one-minute short films.
Play and Improvisation Workshops
In 2024, children and young people were invited to YouthRIFF to learn and try their hand at improvisational theatre. The course was developed in collaboration with the drama school of the Borgarleikhúsið (City Theatre).
Over the years, RIFF and YouthRIFF have offered arts and crafts workshops connected to films showing at the festival, for children and their families. From stop motion workshops to papier-mâché sessions where children created sculptures inspired by the films on screen.
