Just Announced: the programme for the 36th Galway Film Fleadh is packed with some very exciting features! Find out what's in store here...
Galway Film Fleadh announces World, International and Irish Premieres for the 36th edition of the film festival taking place from 9 – 14 July in the Town Hall Theatre and Pálás Cinema. The 36th Fleadh will feature 20 World Premieres, 11 International/European Premieres and 52 Irish Premieres from 45 countries, featuring 94 feature films in total.
Director Of Programming of the Galway Film Fleadh, Maeve McGrath said; "The line up for the 36th Galway Film Fleadh is very exciting. We have first time filmmakers alongside established filmmakers in a programme packed with drama, documentaries, experimental film and animation. The increased production in Irish language film is welcomed, and as well as 6 Irish language feature films in the programme, we have a full strand of Irish language short films. This year, we introduce a new strand for cinephiles called ‘Cinefleadh Collection’ with films that we don’t want you to miss and if you haven’t had enough of the football from EURO 24, we have a strand of football themed films called ‘The Beautiful Game’, so plenty for all audiences to enjoy at the Fleadh in July."
Of the 32 Irish feature films in the programme, Irish language film features prominently including the Irish premiere of KNEECAP; Fidil Ghorm which follows 10-year Molly who is trying to wake her Dad from a coma; Froggie, a bi-lingual film about brotherhood and growing up and Iarsmaí, which examines how museums and institutions in Ireland and abroad are actively decolonising their collections and practices. World premieres include, Gleann, a love letter to a people and a place; At Sea, a hypnotic, hallucinatory reverie at the edge of liminal space; Are We One, about Jesuit Zen Master, Robert Kennedy; Laoch: Defy the Odds delves into the extraordinary life of Thomas “Tommy” McCague; Amongst The Wolves which shines a spotlight on the dangers of homeless, Mrs Robinson tells Mary Robinson’s story, in her own words; Dead Man’s Money is a dark comedy with an inheritance in the balance; music is the link between father and son in Dreamtown and a young boy finds friendship in an unexpected place in The Wise Guy. In HOME: Zak Moradi's Story we follow Zak’s journey from a Kurdish refugee camp to becoming a pillar of the community in Ireland. Irish premieres include; TerraForma; Afternoon in June; Housewife of the Year which remembers a different era in Irish life, and we watch a troubled teen in Kathleen Is Here. The International premiere of Savage Beauty: The World’s Greatest Light Installation follows Finnish light artist Kari Kola, as he attempts the impossible: building the world’s largest light installation on a Galway mountainside.
The World Cinema strand with a prize fund of €3,000 includes the winner of the Sundance, World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Sujo, set in the isolated Mexican countryside featuring Sujo, who finds that fulfilling his father’s destiny may be inescapable; winner of the 2024 Berlinale Panorama Audience Award, Memories of a Burning Body follows three women, raised in a repressive era where sexuality was taboo and The Old Bachelor, running at 192 minutes, winner of the IFFR, VPRO Big Screen Award, follows two brothers, trapped in an abusive household, who hatch a deadly plan to escape their father's control.
With the finals of EURO 24 taking place the week of the Fleadh, we have a football themed strand of films called The Beautiful Game with stories of passionate Genoa fans in Football Fever: Genoa Love Affair; we meet the team who were the basis of Brazil's first women's football team in The First Women; and an Icelandic underdog team beating the odds in The Home Game.
Fleadh CEO, Miriam Allen, noted that; "The Fleadh programme this year reflects the quality of films that will be available to the audience in July. Award winning World Cinema will screen alongside films produced in Ireland ensuring that the local audience has access to new and exciting films curated for them by the programme team. The Film Fair goes from strength-to-strength and will host hundreds of meetings over the duration of the festival. This year, we will present the Galway Hooker award to actor Brian Cox, this is the highest award that the festival presents, and Brian will receive his award on July 14th in Galway."
Peripheral Visions, our European cinema competition for first and second feature film makers features a €5,000 prize, and in 2024, the films featured are from Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, Ireland, Czechia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Romania. Sweden, Italy and Finland.
A new film lovers programme called CineFleadh Collection sets the spotlight on films for cinephiles including India Donaldson’s Good One; silent film, Gondola; director Haroula Rose’s, All Happy Families; Ghostlight features a father recovering from grief helped by local community theatre and Brats brings us the story of the so-called ‘Brat Pack’ with legendary 80’s actor/director Andrew McCarthy in attendance.
We continue our Architecture on Film strand with films that explore the world around us, and the buildings in our environment including Architecton exploring the material that make up our habitat: concrete and stone, Twin Fences investigating the Soviet architect, Boris Lakhman, TerraForma on the remote volcanic island of Ascension and Olympic Halftime which looks at the legacy of Olympic-specific urbanism and architecture.
The GENERATION jury will vote on coming-of-age stories including a road trip in What We Find on the Road; the underground post-punk music scene of 1979 in Head South; parental conflict in Not A Word; cybercrime in My Sextortion Diary and growing pains in Girls Will Be Girls. The Artist on Film strand features a couple where life, death and making meaning are at the heart of their relationship in CPH: DOX winning film, Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other; an artist who uses photographs and diary entries in her search for identity in I’m Not Everything I Want To Be and a film about Catalan artist, Antoni Tàpies who witnessed the fall of Barcelona and the repression of the Catalan people by Francisco Franco in Elements Of A Journey: Antoni Tàpies.
Our Country of Focus is Palestine with films made in, and about Palestine with narrative and documentary films including The Teacher; No Other Land; Screwdriver; We No Longer Prefer Mountains and from Director’s Fortnight Cannes, our closing film, To A Land Unknown.
Films in the Defender programme provoke discussion and inform us with themes around social inequality, war and the battle for land rights including Sundance award nominated, The Battle for Laikipia; the World premiere of Terry McMahon’s, The Kiss Of Death; the experience of life as a migrant worker in Limits of Europe and a teacher fighting to defend freedom of expression in Amal.
What The Fleadh?! returns with a genre cinema programme with the International premiere of Who’s Yer Father; the Irish premiere of the award-winning Oddity; Imelda May starts in the World premiere of eerie psychological thriller The People Before and The Contestant is the incredible true story of a man who lived for 15 months trapped inside a small room, naked, starving and alone.
The ever-popular Music strand of films includes the Irish premieres of Omar and Cedric – If This Ever Gets Weird, Born To Be Wild – The Story of Steppenwolf and the World premiere of Nick Kelly’s The Song Cycle which combines music and sustainability.
The Bingham Ray New Talent Award recognises Bingham’s generosity, wealth of knowledge and contribution to the industry each year and in 2024 features 10 nominees from all disciplines across film including actors, writers, producers and animators.
The Fleadh will screen over 100 Irish and International shorts, which will be in competition for the Fleadh’s Oscar® qualifying prizes. The Galway Film Fair will be running alongside the Fleadh with masterclasses in Acting and Directing led by Tim Roth and Anthony Chen, respectively while Farah Nabulsi attends as a guest speaker for Facing In/Facing Out: A Development Workshop for Screenwriters created in collaboration with Stowe Story Labs
To book hundreds of events including screenings, Q+A’s and filmmaker interviews, panel discussions, and more, go to galwayfilmfleadh.com or contact Town Hall Theatre box office on 091 569777.
The Galway Film Fleadh is supported by the Arts Council, Screen Ireland, Failte Ireland and Galway City Council.
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