Discoveries from Ireland World Cinema

Blip is a short film about two aliens trying to take over the same planet.

Inspired by true events and set in the heart of Ireland's 1990s rave movement, two young men find themselves forever changed by one electrifying, life-altering rave. As the pulsating beats and euphoric energy consume them, they embark on a journey of self-discovery, friendship, and rebellion, seeking to redefine themselves within the underground cultural revolution of house music, where freedom, identity, and the power of sound collide.

Film showcasing the tourist attractions, culture and natural beauty of Ireland.

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Expectations of motherhood become haunting spectres for Mary in this surreal and warping short.

Two Irish cats (Bán and Buí) get up to mischief

Based on the writings of David Chapman and Jimmy Brennan, Withdrawal is about Jimmy, a heroin user in a Dublin psychiatric hospital. His thoughts and observations dominate, his subjective voice-over speculating on the lives of his companions. Jimmy leaves the hospital, returning to the city to reconcile with his loved ones, but his withdrawal leads ultimately to a dead end.

A young Traveller Women who is forced into a Marriage she has no say in with a man she can never love. While she battles confronting her new reality, the Woman Margret really loves has no choice but to watch as everything goes downhill.

A rooster has to save the abducted night sky in an adventurous way.

This cheesy infomercial promotes a hot new topic gripping the nation – Racism! But hurry, Racism is available for a limited period only before Tolerence and Understanding become commonplace. But don’t take our word for it, take Tony’s who has been trying out Racism.

Kev, a mechanic in his 40s, drives up the Dublin mountains to end his life. He is cruelly interrupted by an old man who is lost. Kev is forced to make some hard decisions, for better or worse.

The cat and the fiddle and the mouse ran over the hills.

Mockumentary about a boy with a unique medical condition - his voice is dubbed.

Two cowboys engage in a standoff. After one is presumably killed, he wakes up to find himself in a time loop.

Jane is a neglected 12-year-old working in the family shooting range. She’s always been good with guns, and one evening at the local carnival she gets a chance to prove it – forever altering the course of her young life.

Bobby's tales of hunting game on the plains of Tanzania inspire a sinister side in her mollycoddled co-worker Lucas.

A woman arranges to christen her granddaughter behind her daughter's back. Can a strained mother-daughter relationship survive an unthinkable act?

A story about a purple boy, a green ball, a red ball, a green girl, a red girl and a purple boy.

A young medical student visits the Blasket Islands, off the coast of Ireland, during the holidays and becomes charmed with the place and its people. He falls in love with a local girl, who is betrothed to a local man. The two men meet and become fast friends, and the student realizes the hopelessness in his love of the girl of his friend. He leaves but, after his graduation from Trinity College, he returns to cast his lot with these simple fishermen

When an uptight aunt shuns some of her guests away to the basement on Christmas day, the rejected guests form an unbreakable bond

Is nuclear energy the solution to the climate crisis? Whether it is the only carbon-neutral technology capable of tackling the crisis or a fatally convenient stopgap, time is running out.

A documentary like no other. Starting with the bizarre practices and fantasies of a group of filmmakers working under the label Experimental Film Society, it spins off into a manifesto of light and sound. This dazzling journey through a view of cinema as cosmic ritual and erotic delirium is also an idiosyncratic celebration of the medium itself. Rouzbeh Rashidi’s ornate visual style unleashes a parade of visionary scenes that redefine movie magic as a fevered hallucination.

A recently blinded boy must learn to re-build his world through his remaining senses.

A historical and political inquiry into the architecture of the Paris Métro system, from the initial designs of Hector Guimard to recent transformations. Guided by the ‘psychogeographic’ theories of the Situationist philosophers, Chloe Brenan traces, in limpid images, both the forbidding social controls imposed by this built structure, and the freer ‘desire lines’ created by its daily users. Is it possible to reclaim and redefine the city space?

After accidentally killing one of her clients, a recently divorced housewife turned dominatrix must figure out what to do next - all while dealing with her manipulative teenage son.

Set between the nostalgic charm of childhood and the realism of a bleak suburban Dublin housing estate, the story follows two boys over the course of a summer as they attempt to escape their mundane realities and troubled home lives through comic books, monster movies and science fiction. While out fishing in a stream one day, they catch something that will change their world forever.

A short documentary about industrial whaling. The surviving footage runs for approximately 12 minutes.

When a young boy falls in love with a sport, he quickly realises that the only reason he did was for his father.

Strange forces compel a young woman, in a rural setting.

Home for the first time in years, Hannah is dragged to do the big Christmas shop at Tesco. Cue: abject horror. The last thing she wants is to bump into everyone she went to school with and confirm her fear that she's a failure. Simple: she just wont get out of the car.

Pig is killed in a slaughterhouse by John. Pig, now the omniscient narrator, contemplates its new state, seeing all-time at once. While grasping this new reality, it looks for an anchor - a doomed relationship, between John & Áine.

Inexorable is a psychological horror film that focuses on the fears we have at night.

Ivor Browne has been a central figure in Irish mental health for many decades. Some people wish he wasn’t. Yet many people owe their lives to him. Browne somehow managed to be part of the establishment while still being one of its greatest critics. His pioneering and often controversial lifelong work on behalf of the many who cannot speak for themselves is notable. Alan Gilsenan’s new film captures the essence of this extraordinary human being. In a quirky and challenging cinematic portrait we meet a man, now in his late-eighties, who is still full of energy, good humour and compassion, and who remains a deeply-informed, startlingly innovative thinker. His unique attributes continue to find vital expression and offer real hope in an increasingly bewildering world. With contributions from Tommy Tiernan, Tom Murphy, Mary Coughlan, Sebastian Barry, Nell McCafferty and others.

Filmed shortly after World War II," The Silent Order" records the lives of Trappist monks living inside the 12th-century Monastery of the Holy Cross, Roscrea, County Tipperary, as they quietly go about their business as farmers, scholars, artists, and writers—evoking 10 centuries of a shifting social, political, and religious landscape in the heart of Ireland.

Made by renowned and prolific director of dramas and documentaries, Kieran Hickey, this film shows members of the Half Moon Swimming Club braving the grim winter seas at Dublin’s South Wall in the winter of 1964/65.

Two estranged brothers are forced to come together to carry their youngest brother’s coffin out of their family home.

A short experimental dance film inspired by the exhibition Blue, at Garter Lane Gallery. A collaboration between the two makers Rachel and Gerard, exploring our maternal lineage, hair, the Catholic imagery of our childhoods, farm life, 90’s punk girlbands, decay, domestic realities and the secrets passed from one generation of Irish women to the next. As first-time collaborators Ní Bhraonáin and O’Keeffe found a shared aesthetic and passion for visual storytelling, as well as a similar approach to filmmaking that allows for chance and spontaneity.

A rural town in Ireland swells to a population of half a million for one week during the world’s largest annual celebration of Irish music, transforming it into a major metropolis of culture, diversity and decadence.

A short reflective documentary on sustainability and the effect we have on the beautiful animals around us.

The End of the Counter captures the moment in 1965 when grocery shopping changed forever. Matt Melia transformed the experience when he put baskets in the hands of Irish housewives and gave them the run of the shop. With the birth of the supermarket, suddenly self-control was a vital commodity!

Overhead, The Albatross are a six piece instrumental outfit from Dublin.Known for their intricate yet powerful melodies and energetic stage presence, their sound combines a multitude of instruments which go beyond the normal boundaries of “post-rock” and delve into the realm of the cinematic. Layered strings, electronics and spacious synths combined with soaring guitars and powerful drums are used to create their unique sound. O,TA’s music journeys from delicate intimacy to epic triumphancy, touching everything in between. A much awaited debut album 'Learning To Growl' was released earlier this year with the group translating their explosive live sound into an album which sounds assured and dynamic throughout.

In the Vatican, the Pope prays for a vision.

Emer Danagher is a school girl in rural Ireland who is battling with the overwhelming agony of unrequited love. We see her build up the courage to come clean to her crush as she realises that she has nothing to lose and everything to gain. But at 17, it feels like her life will be over if she doesn't get the response she so desperately wants.

A short film about a guy who is the odd one out in a topsy turvy world.

Shee (masculine presenting) and Magnus (femme), are a couple in a polyamorous relationship. On a night out, Magnus finds herself pulled toward Leo and they spend the night together. A few weeks later, Magnus discovers that she is unexpectedly pregnant, with Leo’s child. With same-sex adoption currently illegal in their home in Kenya Magnus and Shee must try to negotiate the questions and rifts this brings into their relationship with Shee fearing they may not being able to be the father figure the child needs. Escaping to the Ngong hills they reflect on the situation; they must decide whether they should go ahead with the pregnancy and embrace their fate together, as this may be their only chance to have a family.

Since ancient times the seventh son has been said to possess great magic. They are healers, in tune with nature, animals, and all living things.

While playing 'Clair de Lune' on the piano, a man reflects on a past relationship and his love for films.

A community of characters throughout a familiar green island are connected by their obsession with rain.

This opera loosely based on the landscape of Mount Sinai – where the body of St Catherine was mystically elevated after her martyrdom – is made in collaboration with score composer Irene Buckley and Colombian-American singer Stephanie Lamprea.

A docu-drama about how a queer kid in 1990s Dublin discovers their true identity and inner strength when they give birth to Veda, a vibrant drag queen icon.

A team of experts unravels the secrets concealed within this historical battleground, shedding light on a narrative that predates any battlefield discovery made to date. The revelations unearthed in this episode are set to reshape our understanding of ancient conflicts and the evolution of warfare.

Filmed collaboratively during lockdown, this short film is an exploration of the hidden moments in life that typically go unnoticed, and the acceptance of our given situations through appreciation for the mundanity of existence.

Flyboy' is a quirky, magical tale following the creation of a wooden aviator and his plane. After the death of his inventor, an elderly toymaker, Flyboy is left in the back garden of the house on the hill as a weather vane. As the seasons pass he remains routed to the same spot until one fateful day a young boy finds his way into the garden.

A girl named Ava becomes pregnant by an alien in hopes to make peace between the aliens and humanity.

A death in the family leads to an interesting meal for the mourners.

My first short film.

In her late 50s Nuala O'Faolain wrote a memoir that sold a million copies and shocked the Irish public with its revelations of her sexual history and the bizarre manner of upbringing. She was a woman of many, contradictory parts: the enthusiastic heterosexual whose most lasting relationship was with a radical lesbian activist; the feminist who adored a father who openly betrayed her mother and neglected his family. In 2008 she transfixed Ireland again when, ravaged by cancer, she turned to her friend and radio host Marian Finucane to talk frankly about her impending death. 'Nuala' is Finucane's journey of discovery into her friend's life as well as a raw and vivid testimony to the enduring power of friendship.

A worker is hunted by a sadistic killer during his lunch break, for the entertainment of online viewers. The directional debut of Jonty Ross, made as part of the 2022 edition of ‘Fresh Blood’.

Following a recent sighting of her crush on a dating app, an overthinking millennial searches for reassurance that her feelings are reciprocated.