DIFF 2025: Postcards from Happy Endings in Neo Sora and Radu Jude’s new films

DIFF 2025: Postcards from Happy Endings in Neo Sora and Radu Jude’s new films

Happyend Director: Neo Sora Starring: Kurihara Hayato, Hidaka Yukito, Ayumu Nakajima, Makiko Watanabe, Shirō Sano. Running Time: 113 minutes The senior prank, one of the great fascinations of American cinema. It feels rare to see these burning displays of late adolescence in other realms of global cinema, but Neo Sora’s (Ryuichi Sakamoto:Opus) debut retools those well worn senioritis japes for…

Who has who’s number in Beat the Lotto?

Who has who’s number in Beat the Lotto?

Director: Ross Whittaker Featuring: Stefan Klincewicz, Paddy Kehoe, Pat Kenny, Running Time: 86 minutes Early on in Ross Whittaker’s documentary about an infamous Irish syndicate stitch-up in the early 90s, we see an appearance from stat-man Stefan Klincewicz on Pat Kenny Live, promoting his book of tips on how to increase your chances winning the…

A Life Lived: The Quiet Beauty of The Summer Book

A Life Lived: The Quiet Beauty of The Summer Book

Director: Charlie McDowell Starring: Glenn Close, Anders Danielsen Lie, Emily Matthews, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson Running Time: 90 minutes There’s a quote from one of Tove Jansson’s delightful Moomin books that I have always adored: “The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It’s a time for protecting and securing…

Niall McCloskey and Thomas Bennett on the existential unease found In Wake of John Doyle

Niall McCloskey and Thomas Bennett on the existential unease found In Wake of John Doyle

‘An excommunicated priest returns to his remote island community in a documentary, previously lost to time’ – that’s the synopsis of In Wake of John Doyle, one of the shorts screening this week at DIFF, but there’s more to this disarming doc than meets the eye. For one thing, it’s a found footage piece, a…

Run Silent, Run Deep: DIFF’s Silent Shorts Gala Demonstrates How A Festival Can Effectively Bring Classic Cinema to a New Audience

Run Silent, Run Deep: DIFF’s Silent Shorts Gala Demonstrates How A Festival Can Effectively Bring Classic Cinema to a New Audience

The 2025 Dublin International Film Festival has gotten off to a roaring start. Thursday’s Opening Night Gala saw Light House Cinema’s Screen 1 hosting everyone’s favourite ‘King of the Conclave’, Ralph Fiennes, in attendance for the Irish premiere of his new film, The Return, alongside the film’s director, Uberto Pasolini. Friday saw a fantastic celebration…

Tara O’Callaghan highlights sex-for-rent exploitation in short No Time Wasters

Tara O’Callaghan highlights sex-for-rent exploitation in short No Time Wasters

The 2025 Dublin International Film Festival begins this week, and for Irish filmmakers it’s a huge platform to share their work, and in the festival’s expansive offering of shorts there is an impressive variety of filmmaking approaches and outlooks from across the island. No more is that more on display than in the immersive, intelligent…