DARK SKIES: INVASION IS COMING IN JULY!

IRISH FILM INSTITUTE PRESENTS DARK SKIES: INVASION, ITS SECOND ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION FILM

June 14th, 2018: Following on from the huge success of Dark Skies: A Festival of Science Fact and Fiction Films season last July, the IFI will present Dark Skies: Invasion from Saturday, July 7th to Sunday, July 29th. Science fiction is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance, on the back of box office hits such as Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, and Alex Garland’s Oscar-winning Ex-Machina. The festival will include a selection of new and classic films, including a screening of James Cameron’s classic Aliens on 70mm.

The line-up will also feature 35mm screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, set in the 23rd century, in which mankind is at war with an insectoid species, and Mars Attacks!, Tim Burton’s irreverent and madcap love letter to his precious 1950s sci-fi B-movies, featuring an array of brilliantly camp performances from an all-star cast that includes Annette Bening, Jack Nicholson, Natalie Portman, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan and Danny DeVito.

Commenting on this year’s festival, IFI’s Head of Cinema Programming, David O’Mahony, said, ‘From the hostile Martian invaders in Byron Haskin’s The War of the Worlds, to the shape-shifting horror of John Carpenter’s modern classic The Thing, the films chosen for this year’s Dark Skies festival show how filmmakers have historically answered the question of whether we are alone in the universe with a resounding ‘no’, often depicting alien visitors as remorseless destructors hell-bent on annihilation.’

Other films currently confirmed for the festival include Attraction, a 2017 Russian thriller directed by Fodor Bandarchuk, whose familiar alien-invasion plot is elevated by impressive visual effects; 1956’s Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, in which the last of a dying alien species arrives on Earth seeking a new home; and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, featuring Donald Sutherland’s trench-coated health inspector who finds people are transforming into replicas of themselves.

Tickets for Dark Skies: Invasion are now on sale from www.ifi.ie and from the IFI Box Office. A multipass ticket for four films, excluding Aliens 70mm, is available for €35 directly from the IFI Box Office.

DARK SKIES: INVASION SCHEDULE

Sat 7th – 15.30 The War of the Worlds

Sun 8th – 15.30 Attraction

Sat 14th – 18.10 Starship Troopers (35mm)

Sun 15th – 15.30 Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Sat 21st – 20.20 Aliens (70mm)

Sun 22nd – 18.15 Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Sat 28th – 20.30 The Thing

Sun 29th – 15.30 Mars Attacks! (35mm)

For further information, please contact Michelle McDonagh (mmcdonagh@irishfilm.ie) at the IFI Press Office – (01) 6795744.

IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.

The 70mm screening of Aliens is presented in association with Expert Air.