MARCH 2025 AT THE IFI

February 27th, 2025: This March, the Irish Film Institute offers up a jam-packed programme of carefully curated, thought-provoking and all-round entertaining film experiences. From highly-anticipated international releases, to a host of incredible special events, including the second part of our retrospective season dedicated to master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, collaborative screenings with the Gate Theatre, First Fortnight, and the GALPAL Collective, this year’s IFI Spotlight, and the 9th edition of East Asia Film Festival Ireland – all presented on the big screen right in the heart of Temple Bar to our audiences.

For the month’s that’s in it, why not treat yourself to a traditional Irish meal of bacon and cabbage or coddle at the IFI Café Bar this Paddy’s Day, accompanied by a green Guinness – or treat the mothers in your life to a lunch special plus a free glass of Prosecco at the IFI Café Bar before a screening this Mother’s Day?

And remember, film buffs nationwide can explore a host of incredible Irish and world cinema from the comfort of the couch on IFI@Home, with a large-scale hybrid season of our Ingmar Bergman titles also available to stream throughout the Republic of Ireland via IFI@Home now!

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.

ENDS.

For further information and high-res images, please contact Casey Hynes (chynes@irishfilm.ie) at the IFI Press Office.

March Programme Highlights

IFI Seasons
Now until Saturday, March 29th
The second instalment of IFI’s two-month Ingmar Bergman retrospective finds the director operating at his creative zenith, producing some of his most enduring works while embracing the opportunities afforded by the small screen.

The 1960s were a period of heightened experimentation, when Bergman, as his focus increasingly turned towards women, produced films with strikingly modernist flourishes, with uncompromising use of the close-up employed to explore his female characters’ psyches. The Baltic Island of Fårö, now his home, became the director’s preferred location for these excoriating dramas of bourgeois malaise, many featuring his core actors: Bibi Andersson, Eland Josephson, Max von Sydow, and Liv Ullmann.

In the 1970s, Bergman continued to produce masterpieces such as Cries and Whispers, whilst developing projects that would exist in both a theatrical and extended, episodic form for television. We are pleased to present a very rare screening of the complete four-part TV-version of Face to Face.

To conclude the retrospective, on Sunday, March 30th, Dr Jan Holmberg, CEO of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, will deliver an IFI Talk on The Life and Work of Ingmar Bergman.

Additionally, a large-scale hybrid season offering is available to stream throughout the Republic of Ireland via IFI@Home. This season has been supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Ireland. Tickets and full season programme are available on the IFI website; season bundles available in-person or by phone at IFI Box Office.

 

IFI Regulars
Weekly, Monday, Wednesday & Saturday
This month’s Archive at Lunchtime programme, Mí Na Gaeilge, presents two short pieces, Louis Marcus’s Pobal and Dubliners Sean Agus Nua, produced by Gael Linn, screening for free at lunchtime Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays in March.

Wednesday 5th
Now in its seventh year, IFI Next Generation (15-19) Careers in Screen returns! Want to meet the people behind the hit TV series Video Nasty? Join us to hear about how a small idea grew into one of the most talked about programmes of 2025 at this daylong event for young people aged 15-19 who are interested in screen industries. With talks, Q&As, and presentations, it’s a chance to hear from professionals across the sector. Kicking off with Deadpan Pictures’ Video Nasty (Strictly 15+ – strong horror and language) and wrapping with the National Talent Academies’ panel, with lots of guests in between, this is a great start to your future in film. Tickets: €5.00. Students are encouraged to attend independently.

Tuesday 4th
Continuing the IFI Irish Focus strand, we are delighted to present A Sunken Place, a dark medical thriller from director Ronan O’Leary, followed by a Q&A with writer-producer Gerard Daly and director Ronan O’Leary, hosted by Áine Moriarty (IFTA).

Sunday 16th & Sunday 23rd
This month’s IFI Family presents Puffin Rock & The New Friends, the gorgeous animated feature from Cartoon Saloon, presented as Gaeilge on Sunday 16th to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge, and in English on Sunday 23rd. After you visit, why not pop along to our Temple Bar neighbours in The Ark, as they welcome puffins of all ages to their Puffin Rock Habitats exhibition. Screening tickets are just €7.00, with a Family of 4 ticket available for €23.00!

Wednesday 26th & Friday 28th
Wild Strawberries, our monthly film club for over 55s, presents Academy Award-nominated feature September 5. The screening on Wednesday 26th will be Open Captioned. Join us for this friendly and inclusive gathering, with complimentary tea and coffee served pre-screening!

Thursday 27th
Each month, we invite a special guest to choose a film to show on the big screen. For this month’s The Bigger Picture, the strand joins forces with our From The Vaults strand to screen Warris Hussein’s Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in The Bronx, starring Gene Wilder, and introduced by writer Pat McCabe on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Sunday 30th 
The Mystery Matinee returns! Let us take the hassle out of choosing the movie. Grab a ticket, sink into your comfy cinema seat and prepare to enjoy a surprise film. Will it be a brand-new release hot off the presses, or a forgotten cult classic that you missed on the big screen? One thing’s for sure, it will always be a brilliant and unexpected piece of quality cinema, with tickets costing just €6.50 for IFI Members, and €7.00 for non-members.

Monday 31st
This month’s IFI Youth Panel selection is Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto, adapted from Pat McCabe’s novel of the same name, and starring a young Cillian Murphy, and has been chosen by the IFI Youth Panel as a reflection of recent Irish history and its intersection with the transgender community.

The IFI Youth Panel is an open, welcoming and accessible gathering of film fans, formed from our IFI 22 & Under cardholders, and all are welcome to join these dynamic monthly screening parties. IFI 22 & Under cardholders can avail of €5.00 tickets – see more on our website.

 

IFI Special Events
Tuesdays, March 4th-25th
The IFI is delighted to launch its next IFI Evening Course, 2020s’ Vision: New and Recent Irish Cinema. Irish cinema is going through a golden era of international acclaim, winning audiences for our Irish language and other productions, and admiration for the talent of our acting community. This 4-week course, led by Dr Ruth Barton, TCD, will consider new and recent Irish cinema. Each evening will comprise a full screening and follow-up talk. As well as covering the films screening (Lies We Tell; Small Things Like These; Kneecap; The Cry of Granuaile), the accompanying lectures will open out to discussions of the film industry and other notable recent releases. Course fee (€90.00 – IFI Members/Concession; €100.00 – Non-members) includes a full film screening each evening, tea/coffee and talk. Tickets not sold individually.

Wednesday 5th
The IFI is delighted to welcome Conleth Hill, starring in the Gate Theatre’s production of King Lear until Sunday, April 27th, to introduce this special screening of Akira Kurosawa’s majestic late masterpiece Ran, presented in stunning 4K digital. Reimagining Shakespeare’s King Lear as a historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan, this is a perfect opportunity to see Ran on the big screen!

Saturday 8th
To mark International Women’s Day in partnership with First Fortnight, the IFI is delighted to present The No Show, directed by Grace Dyas and Catherine O’Halloran. Over two years, O’Halloran and Dyas worked with young men in Limerick City Build to devise a trauma-informed contemporary art film that tells the origin story of trauma experienced by generations of working-class families. The film presents visceral flickers of loss, abuse, banality, to represent absence and emptiness, and to explore how we might show up for ourselves.

This screening will be followed by a conversation with Grace Dyas and Catherine O’Halloran.

Tuesday 25th
We’re delighted to screen DIG! XX on Tuesday 25th, the 20th anniversary extended edition of the seminal rock documentary DIG!, which adds new narration by The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Joel Gion, features 40+ minutes of never-before-seen footage, and brings this epic tale through to today. Coming to IFI@Home on Monday, April 14th!

Wednesday 26th
The GALPAL Collective and the IFI are back with the third rendition of Directed by Her, a celebration of short form works from some of Ireland’s best FLINTA directors. Directed by Her features a diverse programme of music videos, short films, and more, followed by a panel discussion with this year’s focus being Black-Irish FLINTA Actors. To end the night there will be Audience Awards, an award for Best Screenplay, and lastly a drinks reception with a B2B DJ set from The GALPAL Collective.

Thursday 27th
Entering its 13th year, IFI Spotlight returns on Thursday 27th with a morning presentation by Dr Roddy Flynn, joined this year by Dr Barry Monahan, who will together offer their incisive review of the past year, followed by a panel discussion with Katie Holly (Keeper Pictures), Dr Ciarán Kissane (IFCO), and Donald Clarke (Irish Times), moderated by Sheila de Courcy. Tickets are €15.00, and include lunch and a tea or coffee.

Later that day, we’re delighted to screen National Theatre Live’s world premiere of Dr Strangelove, which sees seven-time BAFTA Award-winner Steve Coogan plays four roles in this stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s comedy masterpiece.

Saturday 29th, Sunday 30th & Wednesday, April 2nd
Chen Kaige’s sweeping, deeply moving epic Farewell My Concubine – one of the most acclaimed, yet rarely screened, films of the ‘90s – is presented in a new 4K restoration. The first Chinese-language winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993, and starring Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, and Gong Li, this wonderfully vivid drama is presented here in its original duration, and is well worth seeing on the biggest screen possible.

Sunday 30th
To celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday 30th, we’re excited to present a special preview screening of Four Mothers, a comedy of great sweetness and charm from Irish director Darren Thornton. Following Edward, who must balance plans for promotion of his soon-to-be-published novel with his responsibilities caring for his widowed mother Alma (Fionnula Flanagan), as he is suddenly responsible for his friends’ mothers as they attend a Pride festival abroad.

Before the screening, book in for Mother’s Day Lunch at the IFI Café Bar and get your mother a free glass of Prosecco alongside her meal!

 

Festivals
Thursday 20th – Sunday 23rd
The IFI is proud to once again work with the East Asia Film Festival Ireland to present the ninth edition of the festival from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd. Highlights for this year’s festival include the opening night film Brief History of a Family on Thursday 20th, which is followed by a Q&A with director Lin Jianjie, who will also take part in an in-conversation event Saturday 22nd; debut feature Don’t Cry, Butterfly on Thursday 20th, introduced by Trà My Nguyễn Hoàng; Super Happy Forever on Friday 21st; Love Bound on Saturday 22nd, curated by Chris Berry, King’s College London, and followed by a Q&A with Qiuyan Chen (founder and director of Queer China UK) and Pradeep Mahadeshwar (he/they – multidisciplinary Irish artist and founder of Queen Asian Pride Ireland and Queen Spectrum Film Festival); also on Saturday 22nd, Caught By The Tides, introduced by Jimmy Tianxiang Wang, and Stranger Eyes; An Unfinished Film and By The Stream on Sunday 23rd; and a selection of classic Vietnamese titles (We Will Meet Again; The Girl on The River; In The Lane) which will screen during the festival with introductions by Ms Khuất Thị Thu Trang, Ngoc Khanh Cinema House, Vietnam Film Institute;  Tickets and full programme information are available on the IFI website.

 

Irish & International Film Releases
From Friday 7th
New documentary Ernest Cole: Lost & Found, joint winner of the documentary prize, the L’Oeil d’or, at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and accounting the life and work of Ernest Cole, a South African photographer who was the first to expose the horrors of apartheid to a world audience (coming to IFI@Home on Monday, April 7th); and Bong Joon-ho’s latest feature Mickey 17, a sci-fi anti-fascist satire starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, who takes a job on a newly colonised planet where he is to be an expendable, and will be ‘reprinted’ every time he dies completing a perilous task.

Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening of Mickey 17 at 18.00 on Tuesday, March 11th on the IFI Mezzanine!

From Friday 14th
The Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou?, adapted from Homer’s Odyssey and celebrates its 25th anniversary; Karan Kandhari’s enjoyably unusual black comedy Sister Midnight; and Alan Gilsenan’s latest documentary The Irish Question, which offers a provocative meditation on the prospect of a united Ireland. The opening night screening of The Irish Question will be followed by a panel discussion with Alan Gilsenan, Sorcha Eastwood MP, Bertie Ahern, Mary Lou McDonald, and David Gavaghan.

From Friday 21st
Flow, the beautifully emotional second animated feature from Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis, dialogue-free and nominated for two Academy Awards at this year’s Oscars; fascinating hybrid documentary Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, which follows and contemplates the complex lives of married couple Maggie, an artist and writer, and Joel, a world-famous street photographer (coming to IFI@Home on Friday, April 25th); and When Autumn Falls, character-driven psychological drama from the ever-surprising and unpredictable François Ozon.

From Friday 28th
La Cocina, Alonso Ruizpalacios’s gripping, dynamic adaptation of Arnold Wesker’s acclaimed stage play and starring Rooney Mara; IFI French Film Festival 2024 highlight Misericordia, a deliciously twisted thriller that explores small town sexual repression through a skewed lens (available on the same day on IFI@Home); and Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut fiction film The End, starring Michael Shannon, Tilda Swinton, and George MacKay.

 

IFI@Home
A world of incredible Irish and international cinema awaits in the IFI@Home library, with huge collections of classic and new films to rent and stream from the comfort of your couch. New releases and more available this March:

Streaming now
Eva Birthistle’s feature debut Kathleen is Here; Clint Eastwood’s latest feature Juror #2, starring Nicholas Hoult; timely documentary The Bibi Files, which recounts the career of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu; Noori Niasari’s touching Shayda; IFI Documentary Festival 2024 highlight and warm-hearted documentary Housewife of the Year; Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton; and Li Yang’s solo feature debut Escape from the 21st Century.

This month, check out our new and permanent Irish Language Films / Scannáin Gaeilge collection, including award-winning dramas and comedies in Irish, to top class documentaries – relax and take a trip to the IFI, at home!

From March 1st
The multiple award-winning Away, from director and animator Gints Zilbalodis (Flow), sees a boy travelling across a deserted island on a motorcycle, trying to evade the looming advances of a giant spirit.

From March 31st
Directed by Aoife Kelleher (One Million Dubliners), documentary Mrs Robinson allows Mary Robinson, a highly articulate and astute commentator, to tell her story, in her own words, for the first time; and To a Land Unknown, which sees Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda hopelessly stranded in Athens in Mahdi Fleifel’s compelling, tightly plotted, yet ultimately heart-breaking exploration of the migrant experience.

 

IFI Café Bar
This March
Indulge in a delicious plate of bacon and cabbage or Dublin’s favourite, coddle, at the IFI Café Bar this St Patrick’s Day, all washed down with a special pint of green Guinness! This Mother’s Day, bring the mothers in your life to a special lunch at the IFI Café Bar, and all mothers will get a free glass of Prosecco with their meal (before 3pm only).

IFI Film Shop
This March
If you’ve been enjoying our Ingmar Bergman season, we have a wonderful selection of Bergman Volume Blu-Ray box sets at the IFI Film Shop – with 4 volumes available in total, all including stunning restorations of the director’s work alongside special commentaries and features, courtesy of the BFI.

Other exciting classics coming to the IFI Film Shop this month include the Criterion Collection’s new digital restoration of Performance, starring Mick Jagger; a restoration of Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy, also from the Criterion Collection; a Yojimbo and Sanjuro double-bill box set from the BFI; Simon Wincer’s cult Ozploitation thriller Harlequin, in a new restoration by Indicator; and a new restoration of David Cronenberg’s Scanners. All of the above will be released in 4K UltraHD.

All this and more at the IFI Film Shop – in-person at the IFI in Temple Bar, and online worldwide!

IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.