Cork, Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, is celebrating its 70th anniversary

Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) is Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, taking place in one of the heartlands of the country’s booming audiovisual sector. Established in 1956, the festival is celebrating its 70th edition this month. 

Once one of Europe’s busiest trading ports, Cork has a lively, international spirit and today is one of Europe’s fastest-growing cities. It is home to the largest number of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies on the continent, including technology and finance firms Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Amazon. It also houses the headquarters of broadcaster RTE South and West Cork Film Studios and two major universities,

Fiona Clark, CIFF festival director and CEO, has a dynamic vision for both the festival and its city. “In 10 years, we will be a major European and international hub for filmmakers,” she predicts. 

The festival has a large and loyal audience, garnering admissions of some 20,000 in 2024, attracted by a heady mix of festival favourites, awards-season contenders, fresh discoveries and remastered classics. The selection team is led by internationally renowned director of programming, Aurélie Godet. 

Local spotlight 

This year’s festival opened with Irish football story Saipan, starring Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke on November 6.

Directed by Northern Ireland duo Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, the UK-Ireland coproduction is produced by Trevor Birney of Belfast-based Fine Point Films, whose credits include Kneecap, alongside Olly Butler of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Films. Saipain tells the story of the infamous bust-up between Roy Keane, the Ireland football team’s captain and manager Mick McCarthy, just days before a 2002 World Cup game in the Japanese city of Saipan.

It is one of five films in the running for the best new Irish feature award. The others are Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, a US-Ireland coproduction that filmed in Ireland, with Wild Atlantic as coproducer, Akinola Davis Jr’s My Father’s Shadow, produced by UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures, and two homegrown documentaries:  Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén’s love letter to Irish folk music,  Celtic Utopia,  and Cork filmmaker Brendan Canty’s Gealtra, which profiles a youth-run creative hub for music, poetry and the Irish language.

“The opening evening is a celebration of the festival itself,” says Clark. “When we moved offices last year, we discovered a 15-minute short documentary film that was made about the 10th Cork International Film Festival in 1965.” 

The footage has been restored and digitised and was screened at the opening night celebrations. “It’s a love letter to Cork through film,” Clark says. “It points to the whole international dimension. There is lovely footage of a Japanese delegation and an Indian delegation in Cork to share films.”

The opening gala also hosted the presentation of the festival’s inaugural lifetime achievement award to Oscar-winning UK producer David Puttnam. Puttnam, who won the Oscar for best film for Chariots Of Fire,  directed by Hugh Hudson in 1982, now lives in Ireland. He was presented with the honour by Irish acting legend Gabriel Byrne. 

In addition to the best Irish feature, the festival is bestowing the ‘Spirit of the Festival’ award, a best documentary prize and audience awards for best feature and best short.

Furthermore, prizes for best Irish, international and documentary short films are all recognised by the US Academy Awards, putting the winners automatically on the longlist of entries.

Eurimages is presenting the Audentia Award for best female director ($30,000) in Cork this year. The prize ceremony is rotated throughout various European festivals.

Young people 

Two education projects form a key part of the 70th anniversary celebrations:  Intinn, a free youth film and mental health programme, specially designed for teenagers, and expanded to offer a specialised iteration for neuro-divergent young people, and the Aeráid Youth Film & Climate Action event, designed to inspire young people about the positive changes and impacts they can make to enhance their future.

The latter will include a special screening of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey by Ruán Magan, narrated by Liam Neeson, presented in partnership with BlueTech Research.

“We want to amplify what the festival stands for and what it already is,” says Clark of the thread running through the 70^th anniversary celebrations. “We want to show how we want to grow and innovate.”

The festival will culminate with a screening of Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On?, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern, at the closing-night gala on November 16.

CIFF is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, with Cork City Council, Creative Europe MEDIA, Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, ESB Energy for Generations Fund and HSE.