Irish Film Institute -EXCLUSIVELY AT THE IRISH FILM INSTITUTE OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER CHARLIE KAUFMAN VISITS FOR Q&A SCREENINGS

EXCLUSIVELY AT THE IRISH FILM INSTITUTE OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER CHARLIE KAUFMAN VISITS FOR Q&A SCREENINGS

EXCLUSIVELY AT THE
IRISH FILM INSTITUTE
OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER

CHARLIE KAUFMAN

VISITS FOR Q&A SCREENINGS OF

HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST

WITH WRITER EVA H.D.

AND A RARE SCREENING OF

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

on SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER

BOOKING LINK: HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST
BOOKING LINK: SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

Still from How to Shoot a Ghost. L-R: Josef Akiki, Jessie Buckley.

The Irish Film Institute (IFI), Dublin is pleased to announce that Oscar-winning filmmaker Charlie Kaufman and poet Eva H.D. will return for two special event screenings on Sunday 7 December.

At 3.30pm, the duo will join us for the Irish premiere of their new film How to Shoot a Ghost, staring Jessie Buckley in a captivating performance alongside Josef Akiki. This will be followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman and writer Eva H.D., hosted by acclaimed filmmaker Sinéad O Shea (Pray for Our Sinners; Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story).

Following this at 5.30pm will be a rare screening of Synecdoche, New York (2008), written and directed by Kaufman, with a virtuoso central performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, supported by an all-star cast including Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Dianne Wiest and Jennifer Jason Leigh. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kaufman hosted by bestselling author Mark O’Connell (How To Be a Machine; A Thread of Violence).

How to Shoot a Ghost follows two newly dead young people who meet in the streets of Athens, amid the pulsing cityscape and the ghosts of history. One a translator, the other a photographer, they were outsiders in life; in death they struggle with the residue of their longings and mistakes. They wander the city together, finding consolation in the difficult beauty of existence and its aftermath.

Still from Synecdoche, New York. L-R: Samatha Morton, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Synecdoche, New York was Kaufman’s directorial debut. Having started out in film as a screenwriter, he garnered Academy Award nominations for both Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, before winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

A film of such complexity as to demand repeat viewings to unravel everything it reaches for, Synecdoche, New York centres on Caden Cotard (Hoffman), a theatre director whose personal life is falling apart even as a MacArthur Fellowship allows him new professional possibilities. He creates a mimetic New York that expands over the years and decades that follow, blurring the reality and fiction of its cast/population in dizzying ways.

H.D and Kaufman last visited the IFI for their film Jackals & Fireflies, and the Irish cinematic premiere of Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, his first collaboration with actor Jessie Buckley, as part of the Bloomsday Film Festival 2023.

 

FILM LISTINGS AND DETAILS

Sunday, December 7th (15.30)

BOOKING LINK: HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST

Film Info
Directed by Charlie Kaufman. Script by Eva H.D.
27 mins, USA-Greece, 2025, Digital, F-Rated.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman and writer Eva H.D. , hosted by Sinéad O Shea.

Film stills, free to use across all media HERE
HTSAG website: https://www.howtoshootaghost.com/
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1y1vJ0xgGY

 

Sunday, December 7th (17.30)

BOOKING LINK: SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK

Film Info
Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman
124 mins, U.S.A., 2008, Digital.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman, hosted by Mark O Connell.

 

SHORT BIOS
Charlie Kaufman is the writer and director of films including ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, and ANOMALISA; and author of the novel Antkind.

Eva H.D. wrote the book Rotten Perfect Mouth and the short film Jackals & Fireflies.

 

BOOKING INFO

Booking via https://ifi.ie/film/how-to-shoot-a-ghost-qa/ and https://ifi.ie/film/synecdoche-new-york-qa/ or by calling the IFI Box Office on 01 679 5744, or in person at the IFI, 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

 

SUPPORT

The IFI acknowledges the support of the Arts Council.

 

About the IFI
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It provides audiences throughout Ireland with access to the finest independent, Irish and international cinema, including online via its streaming platform IFI@Home; it preserves and promotes Ireland’s moving image heritage through the IFI Irish Film Archive, and provides opportunities for audiences of all ages and backgrounds to learn and critically engage with film. As the only cinema with a 70mm projector, the IFI is the home of film in Ireland with a commitment to analogue exhibition.

 

Get social…
Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | LinkedIn: @irishfilminstitute
Bluesky: @irishfilminstitute.bsky.social
Letterboxd: @ifi_dublin
YouTube: @IFIcinema

 

ENDS.

For further media information please contact:
Sorcha FitzGerald, Marketing & Publicity Manager,

+353 1 612 9429


The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council

Arts Council of Ireland