MARCH 2024 AT THE IFI

February 26th, 2024: This March, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) presents a selection of Irish and international new releases, including Showing Up, Baltimore, Robot Dreams and Opus: Ryuichi Sakamoto. This month, the IFI is proud to once again host the East Asia Film Festival Ireland, with screenings taking place at our Temple Bar home from Tuesday 5th to Sunday 10th. The IFI is delighted to present a retrospective dedicated to French director Jean Eustache, screening in-cinema from Tuesday 12th to Sunday 31st.

Opening on Friday 1st is Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up, starring Michelle Williams, and Jeanie Finlay’s documentary Your Fat Friend. Screening from Friday 8th is new F-Rated football documentary COPA 71, and Radu Jude’s latest feature Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.

From Friday 15th, Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s debut feature Banel & Adama; Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest creation Monster, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto; and BAFTA-winning Irish filmmaker Leo Regan’s My Friend Lanre open in IFI Cinemas. The opening night screening of My Friend Lanre will be followed by a Q&A with the director, supported by DCU’s MA in Documentary Practice.

The Desperate Optimists’s Baltimore, starring Imogen Poots; Oscar-nominated animation Robot Dreams; and Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents open in-cinema from Friday 22nd. The opening night screening of Baltimore will be followed by a Q&A with directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. There will be select IFI Family–priced screenings available for Robot Dreams on Sunday 24th, Tuesday 26th, and Thursday 28th.

Opening at the IFI from Friday 29th is Neo Sora’s new documentary Opus: Ryuichi Sakamoto, with a special preview screening on Thursday 28th to mark the anniversary of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s passing; and Sébastien Marnier’s The Origin of Evil.

The IFI is proud to once again work with the East Asia Film Festival Ireland to present the eighth edition of the festival from Tuesday 5th to Sunday 10th. Highlights for this year’s festival include the opening night film The Cats of Gokogu Shrine on Thursday 7th, which is followed by a Q&A with director Kazuhiro Soda, who will also take part in an in-conversation event with Taiwanese producer Chuti Chang on Tuesday 5th, and a season dedicated to Edward Yang, with four rarely screened works in 2K and 4K restorations. Tickets and full programme information are available on the IFI website.

From Tuesday 12th to Sunday 31st, the IFI is delighted to present a retrospective season dedicated to French director Jean Eustache, which will include the director’s formidable debut The Mother and the Whore; the autobiographical My Little Loves; personal documentaries Numéro Zéro, The Virgin of Pessac, and The Virgin of Pessac ’79; alongside two short film programmes. Each film has been lovingly remastered for this retrospective, and the season provides audiences with a unique chance to see this director’s work on the big screen.

Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer will return to the IFI on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd, screening in stunning 70mm at the only cinema in Ireland with 70mm projection capabilities. On Monday 4th, the IFI is delighted to present two screenings of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, in association with the Gate Theatre. The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with Hugo Weaving, who currently stars in the Gate Theatre’s presentation of The President until Sunday 24th, and the second screening will be introduced by the iconic actor.

The annual IFI Careers in Screen, our day-long event for young people aged 15-18, returns on Wednesday 6th with a mix of talks, Q&As, and presentations, offering a chance to anyone interested in a future in Ireland’s screen industries to find out more and to hear from professionals across the sector. Tickets on sale now, full schedule and programme information to follow.

On Thursday 14th, the IFI will screen a new 4K restoration of Fernando Meireilles’s Oscar-nominated City of God. This month’s Irish Focus strand presents I Must Away, accompanied by short film The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp, screening in-cinema on Wednesday 20th, followed by a Q&A with director Dennis Harvey.

March’s The Bigger Picture offering will be Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, introduced by GALPAL Collective’s Aisha Bolaji and screening on Tuesday 19th. This screening will be preceded by Directed By Her, an event programmed and presented by the GALPAL Collective, which will take place at the IFI on Monday 11th.

On Monday 18th, the IFI will screen Luke McManus’s North Circular, presented in partnership with the Irish Architecture Foundation as part of the 2024 St Patrick’s Festival’s One City programme, and featuring a live cello overture by Kevin Murphy, the composer of the film’s incidental music, and a post-screening discussion exploring urbanism and the built environment, hosted by Emmett Scanlan (Director, IAF).

This month sees the launch of a new strand, IFI Encounters – a new recurring programming strand that aims to highlight films from the international festival circuit that otherwise might go unseen by IFI audiences. The films will always be recent, unconventional, and (we think) exceptional. The first film screening as part of this strand is White Plastic Sky, from animating duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, and screening in-cinema on Sunday 24th. Also on Sunday 24th, the Mystery Matinee offers audiences the chance to see a surprise film, new or old, for only €6.20.

On Monday 25th, the IFI will screen Kathleen Harris’s Birdsong, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director and the documentary’s subject, ornithologist Seán Ronayne. March’s Archive at Lunchtime programme, Gaeilge Abú!, presents three short films, screening for free at lunchtime on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays throughout the month. This month, the From The Vaults strand presents Open Asylum, the debut feature from director Colm Villa, on Tuesday 26th, followed by a director Q&A.

On Wednesday 27th, the IFI and aemi will screen Films from Palestine, a programme of short films curated for this year’s edition of London Short Film Festival by Shasha Movies, an independent streaming service for South-West Asian and North African (SWANA) cinema founded by Róisín Tapponi, an Assyrian Iraqi and Irish film programmer, writer, and PhD scholar. This month, Wild Strawberries, the monthly film club for over 55s, offers screenings of Ken Loach’s The Old Oak on Wednesday 27th (Open Captioned) and Friday 29th.

Tickets for new releases and special events are on sale from the IFI Box Office on (01) 6793477 and from www.ifi.ie, as per the IFI’s Weekly Schedule. Online rentals from IFI@Home are available at www.ifihome.ie. For further information and high-res images, please contact Casey Hynes (chynes@irishfilm.ie) at the IFI Press Office.

SCHEDULE

FROM FRIDAY 1ST
Showing Up
Your Fat Friend

SATURDAY 2ND
Oppenheimer 70mm

SUNDAY 3RD
Oppenheimer 70mm

MONDAY 4TH
IFI & Gate Theatre: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert + Q&A/Intro

TUESDAY 5TH – SUNDAY 10TH
East Asia Film Festival Ireland 2024

WEDNESDAY 6TH
IFI Careers in Screen

FROM FRIDAY 8TH
COPA 71
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

MONDAY 11TH
IFI & GALPAL Collective: Directed By Her

TUESDAY 12TH
Jean Eustache: Numéro Zéro

THURSDAY 14TH
City of God 4K Restoration

FRIDAY 15TH
My Friend Lanre + Q&A