The Cork International Film Festival (CIFF), Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, is building on its legacy and international relevance as it prepares to open its 71st edition with the Irish premiere of Olivier Clert’s French-language animated feature Lucy Lost.
It will also host a musical performance and a Q&A with Clert and the film’s composer Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen. Based on Michael Morpurgo’s 2014 book Listen to the Moon, the film debuted in the Special Screenings strand at Cannes earlier this year.
The opening gala on November 12 reflects the festival’s ambition to ensure the event is an essential part of the city of Cork’s cultural infrastructure and identity.
“We’re an Irish film festival supporting Irish film locally and nationally,” says Fiona Clark, CIFF festival director and CEO.
”We’re also a European film festival, and with support from Creative Europe Media, we want those films sitting shoulder to shoulder with the best European and international cinema.”
Clark and her team aim to capitalise on Cork’s appetite for film, with festival audiences up 40% since the pandemic. Central to their plans is a dedicated centre for cinema and education in the city centre. “I would love our 75th to be celebrating a physical space in Cork for film and education,” she says.
Marking Ireland’s EU presidency in 2026, the festival is hosting ‘Europe on Screen, Europe in Collaboration,’ a half-day industry session celebrating Irish–French co-production.
Irish producer Richard Bolger of Hail Mary Pictures, a founder of pan-European producers’ alliance FUSE, will present a case study on financing and delivering Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion winner Father Mother Sister Brother, a co-production between Ireland, France, Italy and the US.
Olivier Père, CEO of Arte France Cinéma, will also join the session for a keynote conversation on the opportunities and challenges of European co-production for Irish filmmakers.
The industry programme also includes First Take, aimed at new and emerging filmmakers. It features a case study of Kieron J. Walsh’s award-winning cross-border film Skintown, about two best friends planning to escape small-town Northern Ireland during the 1994 ceasefire. Jack Rowan and Chris Walley star in the adaptation of Ciaran McMenamin’s novel, which McMenamin also scripted.
Director David Turpin will discuss moving from writing to directing on the Irish-UK production Ancestors, a love story, noir mystery and metaphysical fable starring Saipan’s Éanna Hardwicke, Shadow And Bone’s Jack Wolfe and Kneecap’s Jessica Reynolds alongside Rupert Everett and Christina Hendricks. Cork filmmaker and photographer Brendan Canty, best known for Christy, gives the keynote interview.
“There are lots of networking opportunities in our industry programme, alongside skills training and professional development,” Clark says.
Doc Day, connecting emerging and established non-fiction filmmakers with industry professionals, also returns.
Highlights include the making of multi-award-winning Cork filmmaker Adrian McCarthy’s feature documentary Whiddy, which investigates the 1979 Whiddy Island oil disaster in Bantry Bay, West Cork. Composers will discuss scoring for documentary, and Sophie Fiennes gives a keynote interview about The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias and the impact of The Pervert’s Guide Trilogy, her long-term collaboration with philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
The festival has also launched the Lasair Irish Short Documentary Development Programme, a cross-border incubator for Irish-language shorts.
Irish broadcaster RTÉ will also be in town, presenting a day-long event for independent filmmakers, producers and content creators covering commissioning and what the broadcaster wants next.
“It’s an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of the head of entertainment and music, the group head of young people’s content, and the head of drama and comedy,” Clark explains.
On opening night, “son of Cork” Éanna Hardwicke, who acts, writes and directs, is set to receive the honorary Puttnam award and will take part in an ’In Conversation’ about his career and artistic aspirations.
After David Puttnam received CIFF’s first-ever lifetime achievement award last year, organisers asked the Oscar-winning producer-turned-film-education advocate to lend his name to the annual honour. “Rather than a lifetime achievement award, the new award is about contribution, specifically to Irish cinema and narrative,” says Clark.
Hardwicke, who starred in last year’s opening film, Saipan, emerged as the perfect candidate. “He’s committed to Irish cinema, he’s from Cork and there’s an opportunity here to celebrate talent that is going places.”
The festival closes on November 22 with a gala screening of Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.
Contact: Deirdre O’Reilly, head of marketing & communications
No comments yet