Irish Film Institute -IRISH FILM INSTITUTE LAUNCHES IFI INTERNATIONAL STREAMING SERVICE

IRISH FILM INSTITUTE LAUNCHES IFI INTERNATIONAL STREAMING SERVICE

March 2nd 2021: As communities around the world prepare for their socially distanced St Patrick’s Day celebrations, the Irish Film Institute is delighted to today launch a brand new platform to bring the best of Irish film to homes across the globe. Supported by Culture Ireland, the IFI International streaming service, now live at www.ifiinternational.ie, will allow partner Irish film festivals worldwide to bring the very best of Irish cinema to audiences during the current pandemic.

Following the successful launches of its IFI@Home and IFI@Schools platforms in 2020, the IFI’s online footprint continues to the grow with IFI International. This new site launches with six festivals: the Belgrade Irish Festival (March 12-22), the British and Irish Film Festival Luxembourg (March 15-22), Irish Film Festival Boston (March 17-21), Irish Film Festa Rome (March 17-21), the San Francisco Irish Film Festival (March 25-28), and Irish Film Festival Ottawa (April 9-13). Content for each of the festivals will be available exclusively to audiences in those territories.

Commenting on the launch of the new site, IFI Head of Irish Film Programming Sunniva O’Flynn said, ‘We are indebted to Culture Ireland for their support which allows us to share this new digital platform with our international partners, enabling them to retain loyal audiences during the current cinema closures. IFI colleagues have worked tirelessly to secure an impressive range of new Irish titles for the platform so that festivals across the world can present the best of Irish feature, documentary and short film work in exciting cultural contexts.’

Ross Keane, IFI Director, commented, ‘At a time when many Irish people abroad are unable to travel home, and as global audiences look to engage with Ireland’s rich cultural expression during our national holiday, we are particularly proud that IFI International will allow audiences right across the world to enjoy the best of Irish cinema from their own homes. We are grateful to Culture Ireland for their invaluable support on this important strategic initiative, and wish our partner festivals in the US, Canada, Serbia, Luxembourg and Italy every success.’

Christine Sisk of Culture Ireland added, ‘Culture Ireland, through our partnership with IFI, works with many international festivals and partners to present Irish film worldwide. This new digital platform will increase the reach of Irish film globally at a time when our online international cultural connections are more important than ever.’

Films confirmed to screen as part of various festival programmes include hit documentaries The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine, The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid and The Man Who Wanted to Fly, alongside Tom Sullivan’s Arracht, Cathy Brady’s Wildfire, Phil Sheerin’s The Winter Lake, Paddy Slattery’s Broken Law, Paddy Breathnach’s Rosie, Shelly Love’s A Bump Along the Way, and Aoife Crehan’s The Last Right.

Other festivals scheduled to host their programmes on the site include The Irish Festival of Oulu (Finland) in September/October, and the Irish Film Festival Australia which is due to be held later in the year.

For more details about each of the partner festivals now available on the site, please see:

Belgrade Irish Festival – http://irishfest.rs/
Contact: info@irishfest.rs

British and Irish Film Festival Luxembourg – http://www.bifilmseason.lu/
Contact: Geoff Thompson, geoff@bifilmseason.lu

Irish Film Festival Boston – http://www.irishfilmfestival.com/
Contact: info@irishfilmfestival.com

Irish Film Festa Rome – http://www.irishfilmfesta.org/en/home-page/
Contact: info@irishfilmfesta.org

San Francisco Irish Film Festival – https://sfirishfilm.com/ 
Contact: info@sfirishfilm.com

Irish Film Festival Ottawa – https://www.irishfilmfestivalottawa.ca/
Contact: irishfilmfestivalottawa@gmail.com

For media enquiries, please contact Stephen Boylan at the IFI Press Office on 01 679 5744 or email sboylan@irishfilm.ie.

IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council. IFI International is supported by Culture Ireland.

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