One of the most heavily nominated films ahead of this weekend’s Oscar ceremony, papal elect-em’-up Conclave has emerged as an awards favourite and box-office hit thanks to its entertaining mesh of political intrigue and hot gossip. “Nothing is more simultaneously ‘dudes rock’ and for the girls and gays than watching aging character actors tell each…
‘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…
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…
Two and a half years after its festival premiere, The People’s Joker is finally getting its Irish theatrical release. I first encountered Vera Drew’s debut feature when it was included in Dublin’s own GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival lineup in September of 2022, before being yanked from venues after only one screening at the Toronto…
We’re living in the Golden Age of Irish Horror and we’re dead excited about it. Throughout October we’re celebrating Samhain with interviews, reviews and retrospectives, that show how Ireland has risen to the top of the horror hierarchy. You wait forever for a horror film as Gaeilge and then two come along at once. While…
GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival has begun for 2024, and over the next few days, it will deliver the usual mix of the essential and emotional, the taboo and transgressive in queer cinema. Taboo is a spicy but vital ingredient in any cinematic stew, a window into the parts of us that are certainly there…
Festivals like the Cork International Film Festival, which kicks off this week, are a fantastic avenue for unique storytelling from passionate filmmakers. One of Ireland’s own, Paul Duane is a filmmaker who has always been drawn to unique stories, including following KLF in What Time Is Death?, and the artistic efforts of Bill Drummond in…
Now on Netflix, free-diving documentary The Deepest Breath has captured viewers with its high stakes storytelling and emotional turns. Ireland’s own Laura McGann, whose previous feature was the roller derby doc Revolutions, directs the film, which through word-of-mouth has become one of the most sought-out films currently streaming. Graham Day spoke with Laura about the…
Maureen ‘Mo’ O’Connell has had a busy couple of years. A director shorts, features and plays, Mo also brings up the work of others, as head of the Dublin International Comedy Film Festival. Recent shorts by the Dublin director show her range, with Haven, Hum and Bruise all stirring different emotions with powerful visuals. Haven is…
The latest volume of the animated anthology series Star Wars Visions is available now on Disney+, providing a collection of animated episodes from studios all over the world. Ireland’s own Cartoon Saloon contributed to the new batch released on May the 4th, with studio co-founder Paul Young directing the episode ‘Screecher’s Reach’, an eery and…
