Fionnuala Halligan
Fionnuala Halligan is Screen International’s executive editor for reviews and new talent, occasional comment writer and compiler of the annual UK & Ireland Stars of Tomorrow young talent initiative alongside its spin-offs Rising Stars Scotland and Rising Stars Ireland. She started writing for the publication over two decades ago in Hong Kong/China but is based in the UK now.
As the title's chief critic, she supervises over 1,000 reviews a year between general release and festival titles. She has served on multiple festival juries from Chicago to San Sebastian and Jerusalem and has written two books on filmmaking – Filmcraft: Production Design and The Art Of Movie Storyboards.
A journalism graduate, Fionnuala started work as a film critic for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she was based for 12 years. She has retained a long-lasting association with Asia and was a consultant to and international programmer for the Macao International Film Festival for five years (2016-2021) alongside her work at Screen Internatoonal.
She is a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle, Bafta and the European Film Academy, and a top-rated critic on Rotten Tomatoes.
Contact info
- Tel:
- +44(0)7881306369
- Email:
- finn.halligan@screendaily.com
Reviews‘Mrs Robinson’: Galway Review
The life and accomplishments of Mary Robinson, the first female President of Ireland, are celebrated in this unctuous documentary
Reviews‘Housewife Of The Year’: Galway Review
Doc reveals Ireland’s troubling gender politics through the country’s long-running ’Housewife Of The Year’ competition
Reviews‘Amongst The Wolves’: Galway Review
Luke McQuillan anchors this debut Irish revenge drama as a war veteran struggling to survive on Dublin’s harsh fringes
FeaturesStars of Tomorrow 2024: Richard Gadd (actor-writer-producer)
Gadd starred in and wrote Netflix’s ‘Baby Reindeer’.
FeaturesScreen critics’ stand-out titles from Cannes 2024
Our critics round up the films that may have flown under the radar but generated a lot of praise.
CommentComment: Sex and politics reign at newsworthy Cannes 2024
Critical consensus – if you can ever find it – indicates it was a good year, even if reviews were rarely rapturous.
Reviews‘All We Imagine As Light’: Cannes Review
Payal Kapadia’s eloquent fiction debut follows three women attempting to find their place in modern Mumbai
Reviews‘Motel Destino’: Cannes Review
A young hitman hides out in a Brazilian sex hotel in this steamy Competition title from Karim Ainouz
Reviews‘The Shrouds’: Cannes Review
A grieving man invents a way to stay close to his dead wife in David Cronenberg’s lumbering Competition entry
Reviews‘Caught By The Tides’: Cannes Review
China’s relentless march for progress inspires Jia Zhang-ke’s contemplative Competition entry
Reviews‘Desert Of Namibia’: Cannes Review
A young Japanese woman struggles with her claustrophobic Tokyo life in this Directors’ Fortnight title
Reviews‘Queens Of Drama’: Cannes Review
A pop star and a lesbian punk fall in and out of love in this hyper-stylised French debut
Reviews‘Universal Language’: Cannes Review
Iranian culture is transposed onto Winnipeg in this conceptual Canadian comedy
Reviews‘Kinds Of Kindness’: Cannes Review
Yorgos Lanthimos returns to his Greek Weird Wave roots for this triptych of dark tales playing in Cannes competition
Reviews‘The Girl With The Needle’: Cannes Review
Horrific true events inspire Magnus von Horn’s murderous black-and-white drama
Reviews‘When The Light Breaks’: Cannes Review
National and personal tragedy collide over the course of a single Icelandic summer day in Runar Rúnarsson’s Un Certain Regard opener
Features“My films are cut through with the need to resist the violence of our times,” Alice Diop tells Visions du Reel audience
“My aim is to find the right format for the film I want to make,” said the French filmmaker of documentaries and ‘Saint Omer’.
Reviews‘The Flats’: CPH:DOX Review
The past casts a permanent shadow over a West Belfast housing estate in this CPH:DOX winner
Reviews‘The Beautiful Game’: Review
Micheal Ward and Bill Nighy make a dream team in Thea Sharrock’s homeless football league drama
Reviews‘Grand Theft Hamlet’: SXSW Review
Video game ’Grand Theft Auto’ plays host to a virtual staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet