Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory

Apocalypse Clown

George Kane, 102 minutes, 2023

A troupe of failed clowns and an intrepid reporter embark on a chaotic road trip of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy. When international clown master Jean DuCoque dies suddenly, Bobo (David Earl), a hobo…

Arracht

Tom Sullivan, 86 minutes, 2019

On the eve of the great famine, fisherman Colmán Sharkey (Dónall Ó Healaí) ekes out a meagre existence for his family on the west coast of Ireland. Wrongly blamed for the murder of an inclement local landlord (Michael McElhatton) he…

As If I Am Not There

Juanita Wilson, 109 minutes, 2010

With the Academy Award-nominated short film The Door behind her, Irish writer-director Juanita Wilson delivered this haunting, affecting and visceral drama for her feature debut. Taking place in 1992 as Bosnia is plunged into war, the story, adapted from Croatian…

At Sea

Sandy Kennedy, 67 minutes, 2023

A hypnotic, hallucinatory reverie at the edge of liminal space. It is a visceral human experience, a rupture, a rhapsody of sound and image, moving beyond the sensory, to be carried deep in the body. World premiere: Galway Film Fleadh…

Attracta

Kieran Hickey, 55 minutes, 1983

Adapted from a work by William Trevor, Attracta is a searing account of lone voices resisting the bloodshed of twentieth century Ireland, told through the figure of the elderly, institutionalised Attracta (Wendy Hiller). An orphan of Ireland’s War of Independence,…

Babygirl

Macdara Vallely, 81 minutes, 2013

Babygirl, the second feature from Armagh-born writer-director Macdara Vallely, revisits the world of troubled teens which he first explored in Peacefire (2010). Set in the Bronx, Babygirl is an unsettling drama about a Puerto Rican teenager (Yainis Ynoa) who finds…

Báite

Ruán Magan, 93 minutes, 2025

September, 1975. Summer is coming to an end. Peggy Casey (Eleanor O'Brien) prepares for a big weekend of fishing. Her pub will be full to the door, and she desperately needs the business.  It has been a few months since…

The Ballroom of Romance

Pat O'Connor, 65 minutes, 1982

This perfectly rendered naturalist feature, adapted from writer William Trevor’s short story The Ballroom of Romance, explores the deadening atmosphere of 1950s Ireland through the figure of the unmarried Bridie (Brenda Fricker). “Spinster” Bridie goes to the country ballroom, where…

Ballywalter

Prasanna Puwanarajah, TBC, 2022

A university drop-out living with her mum, and making money as an unlicensed minicab driver, picks up a budding stand-up comic whose marriage has recently broken up. A bittersweet life-affirming story about the unexpected connections that can change the course…

Search

Search multiple categories