As Ireland’s largest & longest running film festival, we are proud to screen the latest and best Irish fiction and documentary films, both features and shorts.
In addition to our Irish Gala screening of Sinéad O’Shea’s powerful documentary Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story on Sunday 10th November and Super Cine Saturday on 16th November, and our Best New Irish Feature Award titles, this year’s selection spotlights the broad range and creativity of filmmaking talent in Ireland.
All Festival tickets and passes are now on sale on corkfilmfest.org and the myCIFF app.
IRISH GALA: BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY
The extraordinary life Edna O’Brien, both a revered novelist and a feminist icon, is explored in Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story. Sinéad O’Shea’s thoughtful documentary weaves O’Brien’s professional and personal triumphs and difficulties in a portrait of an icon who stood in resistance to the Irish conservative doctrine of the mid-twentieth century (5pm, Sun 10th Nov, The Everyman)
Director Sinéad O’Shea will introduce the screening + a Q&A will take place thereafter.
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story is also screening at Cinemax Bantry, Regal Cinema Youghal, and Gate Midleton and Mallow, as part of Super Cine Saturday on Sat 16th Nov.
In competition for the CIFF Best New Irish Feature Award, proudly supported by the Irish Examiner
BEST NEW IRISH FEATURE AWARD
Rooted in Ireland, facing the world. The Best New Irish Feature strand showcases ambitious and wildly different films, representing the quality and diversity of Irish filmmaking this year, whether fully Irish in story and production or in harmonious joint efforts with filmmaking talents from other countries. Proudly supported by the Irish Examiner.
The Irish-produced and award-winning Bring Them Down (starring Barry Keoghan) will have its Irish premiere with director Christopher Andrews participating in a Q&A afterwards. In addition, this year’s selection includes horror film Fréwaka, survival tale The Damned, surreal drama September Says, Buddhist documentary Chasing the Light, and the previously announced Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story.
The Award jury will comprise Emma Boa, Edinburgh International Film Festival producer and programmer; Áine Moriarty, Chief Executive of the Irish Film & Television Academy; and Hilary Rose, Irish actress (The Young Offenders). The winner will be announced at our Awards Gala on Saturday 16th November.
The Best New Irish Feature Award is proudly sponsored by the Irish Examiner
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IRISH VOICES
From intimate reflections to geopolitical analysis, the filmmakers in our Irish Voices strand come to us both very much as Irish people fully aware of a common heritage, and as responsible citizens of the world.
The original and deeply personal essay, The Art of Loss will be followed by a post-screening discussion with its director Carmel Winters and fellow filmmaker and CIFF alumnus Ken Wardrop (So This is Christmas). If I Fall Don’t Pick Me Up is a fascinating documentary about Samuel Beckett’s collaboration with his German theatre director Walter Asmus, while The Irish Lumières – The Horgan Brothers is a lovingly-made tribute to pioneers of Irish film. Savour a beautiful portrait of bees, beekeeping and beekeepers in The Keepers, and discover the radical possibilities of love, care and dying on your own terms in M/S. A portrait of Belfast composer Neil Martin follows the musician and composer through grief, celebration and new ambitions in Neil Martin: Bóthar an Cheoil. The filmmakers will be in attendance for all the aforementioned films.
Additionally, we have a special preview screening of Yvonne McDevitt’s Trumpets, including a discussing with the filmmaker hosted by Maximilian Le Cain, in advance of its Dublin Premiere at the IFI. An Arts Council of Ireland ‘Authored Works’ feature film by kind permission of its exhibition partner, the IFI.
IRISH SHORTS
This year’s festival features five categories of Irish shorts, showcasing the latest and best of Irish short form cinema. In-competition programmes are eligible for the Grand Prix Irish Short Award, one of three Academy Award®-qualifying awards, ensuring that the winner in Cork will be automatically long-listed for the Oscars®.
Our Irish Shorts 1 programme (Sat 9th Nov, Arc Cinema) bears the promise of an eclectic mix and exciting mix of Irish and World Premiere shorts. Irish Shorts 2 (Sun 10th Nov, Arc Cinema) showcases a selection of innovative and captivating shorts with thoughtful and complex approaches.
Our Irish Shorts 3 category, Pure Cork (Sun 10th Nov, The Everyman) presents a collection of eight new works from Cork filmmakers. Playful, experimental and just downright celebratory – in a word, Cork!
Irish Shorts 4 (out of competition): Some of our favourite Irish short films from the past year, featuring a few familiar names to Cork audiences. Mostly fiction, but documentary and animation are also represented (Sun 19th Nov, The Everyman).
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is proud to present the World Premieres of new Irish short films funded under the Focus and Real Short film schemes, along with Cork picks of recent Screen Ireland short films. The Frameworks short films featured in this screening are co-funded by RTÉ (Sat 9th Nov, The Everyman).
The Short Awards presentation on Thu 14th Nov is sponsored by Murphy’s (enjoy responsibly).
CORK LENS
Spotlighting the creative diversity of our local community, past and present, through film, conversation, and the panoramic screen of the city itself.
Director and 2024 Arts Council Film Artist in Residence at UCC Emer Reynolds, and the film’s producer Clare Stronge, will participate in a post-screening ‘in-conversation’ following The Farthest (Sat 16th Nov, Arc Cinema).
Cork on Film: IFI Local Films For Local People: This new programme of work, from collections preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive, includes a series of recently re-discovered Cork-themed films which provide a window onto the city and county (Sun 17th Nov, Triskel).
Sisterhood & Sanctuary (+ Panel Discussion), a collaboration between Cork Migrant Centre, Saoirse Ethnic Hands On Deck, and Grey Heron Media, follows the women and mothers who participate in activities at Cork Migrant Centre. Their powerful and personal testimonies reveal the abundant creativity and indomitable spirit of these determined women who have established a thriving social enterprise, Saoirse EHD (Ethnic Hands on Deck). FREE but ticketed. Join us for the Saoirse EHD pop-up market following the screening. (Sat 16th Nov, St. Peter’s)
Brían Crotty Art Exhibition and Screening:
Visual artist Bríain Crotty presents a brand new film (free but ticketed) and art exhibition that unveils a new artistic language in which cinema and painting converge to explore the ephemeral nature of memory and the profound depths of the Irish experience. (Exhibition: Tue 12 – Sat 16 Nov. Screenings: Tue 12, Wed 13 Nov, St. Peter’s)
