MAY 2025 AT THE IFI

April 25th, 2025: This May, the Irish Film Institute offers up a jam-packed programme of carefully curated, thought-provoking and all-round entertaining film experiences. From highly-anticipated Irish and international releases, to a host of incredible special events, including the second part of our retrospective season dedicated to British director David Lean (largely screening in analogue 35mm format, with three 70mm screenings, and one extremely rare screening of his little-known documentary), collaborative screenings with aemi, Bealtaine, and Outhouse, and an extra-special opening night party for Wes Anderson’s latest masterpiece The Phoenician Scheme.

And remember, film buffs nationwide can explore a host of incredible Irish and world cinema from the comfort of the couch on IFI@Home, anywhere in the Republic of Ireland!

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.

May Programme Highlights

IFI Seasons
Saturday, April 5th – Wednesday, April 30th
The second half of David Lean’s career, as explored in this month’s programme, saw great changes. Although the films in his middle period are perhaps not as feted in recent times as the Coward or Dickens adaptations with which he made his name, or the epics with which he became synonymous, they are ripe for rediscovery as the films that presaged his move to international filmmaking in the mid-1950s, and the beginning of a new phase. Even as Lean achieved a stature that afforded him the freedom to luxuriate in the extended running times of his epics (the downside of which was a vastly slower rate of output), he remained the consummate filmmaker who proved as adept with filming in the desert or jungle as he had been filming in English tearooms. All but two films will be presented on celluloid, including 70mm presentations of Lawrence of Arabia and Ryan’s Daughter, accompanied by a 4K digital restoration of Doctor Zhivago and an extremely rare screening of Lost and Found: The Story of Cook’s Anchor, a documentary directed by Lean for New Zealand television.

This season has been supported by Expert Air. 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, Bob Quinn: Count Him Out, presents two of the Irish director’s short films, Cloch and Self Portrait with Red Car, screening for free at lunchtime on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays in May.

Sunday 4th
Our From The Vaults strand returns this month to screen Robert Quinn’s Cinegael Paradiso, an affectionate documentary tribute to his father and Irish director Bob Quinn, which screens to mark the publication of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, a new collection of essays and articles. The film will be introduced by Robert and Toner Quinn.

Tuesday 13th
The EAFFI Discoveries (East Asia Film Festival Ireland) strand returns this month with Lei Xu’s Green Wave, a subtle and often hilarious Chinese family comedy-drama that captures the emotional complexity of a father-son reunion with sharp-witted social commentary.

Wednesday 14th
Continuing the IFI Irish Focus strand, the IFI is delighted to present Ireland and Its Aromatic Heritage, a film by interdisciplinary artist Gayil Nalls which weaves together imagery, storytelling, and contributions from an array of experts, and features narration by writer/broadcaster Manchán Magan and music from Kíla and Fionnuar. The event will include a unique olfactory experience of World Sensorium, a living sculpture of world heritage scents created by Gayil Nalls; a panel discussion with Nalls and Magan hosted by Lizbeth Goodman (Director of SMARTlab, UCD); and a musical turn from Colm and Rónán Ó Snodaigh of Kíla

Sunday 25th
This month’s IFI Family presents Great Expectations on 35mm, a gorgeous special showing for family audiences of the classic Dickens adaptation presented with the IFI’s David Lean retrospective. Tickets are just €7.00, with a Family of 4 ticket available for €23.00!

On the same day, the Mystery Matinée 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 26th
This month’s IFI Youth Panel selection, and their final one before the summer arrives, is Giuseppe Tornatore’s love letter to cinema, Cinema Paradiso – a story of a filmmaker’s childhood as he falls in love with the art of cinema. A film chosen by both IFI Youth Panel and Wild Strawberries’ Bealtaine programming groups (see more information further below), cinema memories from both audiences will be captured as part of an upcoming video project and shared at the screenings in May.

The IFI Youth Panel is an open, welcoming and accessible gathering of film fans, formed from our IFI 25 & Under cardholders, and all are welcome to join these dynamic monthly screening parties. IFI 25 & Under cardholders can avail of €5.00 tickets, 7 days a week – see more on our website.

Wednesday 28th
Wild Strawberries, our monthly film club for over 55s, presents two different film screenings this month. The first, selected by the new IFI Wild Strawberries Programming Group, in association with access>CINEMA, is Cinema Paradiso! This gorgeous, nostalgic title will screen at the IFI, and also as part of the film tour taking place during Bealtaine Festival 2025.

Tickets are just €5.50 for IFI Members and €6.00 for non-members, and include a free tea or coffee!

Also on Wednesday 28th, for this month’s The Bigger Picture, we screen Pedro Almodovar’s mesmerising classic All About My Mother, chosen and introduced by Emmett Scanlon (Director, Irish Architecture Foundation).

Friday 30th
Our second Wild Strawberries screening in May presents newly released Four Mothers, a heartfelt Dublin-set drama from Drogheda brothers Darren and Colin Thornton starring the wonderful Fionnula Flanagan.

Tickets are just €5.50 for IFI Members and €6.00 for non-members, and include a free tea or coffee!

IFI Special Events
Saturday 3rd
Bealtaine Festival in partnership with IFI and aemi will present Film Portraits by Christiana Perschon, a selection of short films from artist Christiana Perschon’s ongoing portrait series produced in creative collaboration with an older generation of women artists. Christiana Perschon will be in attendance and will host a Q&A with visual artist Gerda Teljeur after the screening.

Wednesday 7th
Björk: Cornucopia is a documentary concert film by legendary Icelandic artist Björk, capturing her 2023 performance at Lisbon’s Altice Arena during the four-year-long Cornucopia tour. Directed by Ísold Uggadóttir, the film integrates live footage with immersive visuals, and features songs from Björk’s albums Fossora (2022), Utopia (2017), and Vulnicura (2015), presented through elaborate stage designs and multimedia elements.

Thursday 8th
Electronic music producer Mark Pritchard, songwriter Thom Yorke, and groundbreaking visual artist Jonathan Zawada present Tall Tales, a collaborative visual and audio cinema experience a decade in the making. Screening in advance of the release of their titular album, Tall Tales shows the seasoned musicians continue down a path of experimentation, juxtaposed with uneasy landscapes of natural beauty and the brutal aesthetics of a dystopian world

Thursday 8th & Sunday 11th
Ocean with David Attenborough takes viewers on a breathtaking journey, showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean. The celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery. Through spectacular sequences featuring coral reefs, kelp forests, and the open ocean, Attenborough shares why a healthy ocean keeps the entire planet stable and flourishing.

Sunday 11th
Narrated by Sissy Spacek, documentary Without Getting Killed or Caught from Paul Whitfield and multiple Grammy-nominee Tamara Saviano, a figure of note for her many activities across the Americana and folk scene over several decades, focuses on the careers and relationships of Guy Clark, his wife Susanna, and their friend and collaborator Townes Van Zandt. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Tamara Saviano, hosted by broadcaster Ronnie Norton and featuring live music from Freddie White.

Sunday 18th
Joining with Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the historic marriage equality referendum with a screening of The 34th, which follows the founders and members of the Marriage Equality campaign from Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan’s pivotal KAL case to the grassroots movement that led to the YES vote on May 22nd, 2015.

The screening will be introduced by Linda Cullen and Vanessa Gildea, and followed by a Q&A with Oisín O’Reilly, CEO of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre, Moninne Griffith, CEO of Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland, and Mamobo Ogoro, CEO of GORM.

Irish & International Film Releases
From Friday 2nd
Amongst The Wolves, a taut psychological drama filled with complex, vulnerable characters trying desperately to avoid their inevitable fate from director Mark O’Connor, co-authored with Luke McQuillan; Paulo Sorrentino’s Parthenope sees the director return to Naples, the city of his birth, for a languorous, swooningly romantic chronicle of the eponymous Parthenope, named after a siren in Homer’s Odyssey whose death is associated with the foundation of Naples’s Greek predecessor; documentary The Graceless Age: The Ballad of John Murry, from director Sarah Share and winner of the Best Feature Documentary at IFI Documentary Festival 2023, follows musician John Murry’s journey from near-death to redemption and a new zest for life and art through his outstanding music. The opening night screening of The Graceless Age: The Ballad of John Murry on Friday 2nd at 18.20 will be followed by a Q&A with Sarah Share.

From Friday 9th
Karim Aïnouz’s gripping erotic thriller Motel Destino is an intoxicating contemporary noir with smouldering performances and a suitably lurid aesthetic; Andres Veiel’s extraordinary and extraordinarily clear-eyed documentary Riefenstahl acknowledges all sides of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s life and talent, and allows audiences to draw their own conclusions; The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 film, stays true to the
earlier film’s vision of compassion and inclusiveness, and features a stellar cast, including Bowen Yang, Han Gi-chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, and Youn Yuh-jung.

Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening of The Wedding Banquet at 18:30 on Tuesday 13th.

From Friday 16th
Stylish docufiction E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea brings to life a love triangle in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s, and focuses on iconic Irish artist and architect Eileen Gray, who built her modernist dream house on the Riviera, only to be upstaged by Le Corbusier; Good One, a beautifully calibrated miniature that carries its weighty themes lightly, as it captures the complexities of father-daughter relationships through the guise of a simple hiking trip; Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band, a warm, funny, and socially conscious crowd-pleaser from the director of The Big Hit, the opening film at IFI French Film Festival 2021.

From Friday 23rd
IFI Documentary Festival 2024 highlight The Flats, which follows a group of Belfast neighbours reenact childhood memories from the violent Troubles era in their Catholic district, exploring the collective experiences that shaped their lives and community; Wes Anderson’s latest work The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, and numerous others.

Join us at the IFI for the first night of The Phoenician Scheme, where we’ll be hosting a special screening to ring in Wes Anderson’s latest all-star entry, with surprises in store. Afterwards, join us for a complimentary beverage at the IFI party to celebrate in signature style. Tickets on sale May 12th.

The opening night screening of The Flats on Friday 23rd at 18.10 will be followed by a Q&A with Alessandra Celesia.

From Friday 30th
Writer-director Katell Quillévéré’s complex, romantic post-war tale Along Came Love, inspired by her grandmother; James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island, a thoroughly disarming, big-hearted crowd-pleaser with personality to spare, starring Tim Key, Tom Basden, Carey Mulligan, and Akemnji Ndifornyen.

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 May:

From May 5th
Documentary Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other sees directors Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet observe a married duo, artist and writer Maggie Barrett and world-famous street photographer Joel Meyerowitz, consider existential questions and ponder how each has seen and appreciated the other; Adam Elliot’s highly anticipated follow-up to Mary and Max, Memoir of a Snail boasts a stellar voice cast including Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, and Jacki Weaver.

IFI Film Shop
This May
Available at the IFI Film Shop this month is the newly released Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, an essential collection of essays, articles, and book extracts from iconoclast filmmaker (and much more) Bob Quinn. The book includes writings from the 1960s to the 2020s, showing Quinn’s thinking and the changing culture of the period, and is edited by Quinn’s son, Toner Quinn (Editor, The Journal of Music). On sale now in-person and online, the book will be available for a specially discounted price in-person on Sunday 4th to align with the screening of Robert Quinn’s Cinegael Paradiso.

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.