For two years now we have exposed IFI audiences to exciting new Irish work through Irish Shorts @ IFI. This programme, which has created and maintained a space for short Irish films, has been enthusiastically welcomed by filmmakers and IFI audiences alike. We are therefore delighted to present a complete new slate of work funded by Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board. These new films from the live-action Short Shorts and animated Frameworks schemes present a foretaste of films to be presented in the IFI throughout 2011. The new Short Shorts – all without dialogue – tell stories of psychiatric wards, child abuse, female sexuality, pigeons, and ballet on a flatbed truck, while the new Frameworks follow various quests for love and friendship, and the impregnation of a lonely man by a swan!

Mary Hanafin, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, will launch this exciting new programme.