With the St Patrick’s Day festivities fast approaching, IFI International will this March work with film festivals across the globe to present 49 films at 26 festivals celebrating new and classic Irish work. Irish filmmakers will have a presence at many of the 118 screenings with director Lenny Abrahamson, documentarian Sé Merry Doyle, and actors Hazel Doupe, Moe Dunford and Hugh O’Conor among the talent travelling to 25 cities in Europe and beyond.
Highlights of this year’s collaborations include the Belgrade Irish Festival, the Irish Film Festival in Moscow and St Petersburg, the Boston Irish Film Festival, and the Irish Film Festa in Rome. 2019 also marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Ireland and China and to mark the occasion, two Irish films, Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner and Carmel Winters’s Float Like a Butterfly, will screen at the China Women’s Film Festival in Hong Kong.
We have braced ourselves for the March onslaught and the annual greening of the globe which this year sees an impressive volume of activity with our perennial partners and a number of new Hiberno-curious exhibitors. Thanks to the trojan work of IFI colleagues Eleanor Melinn and Dean Kavanagh, many, many thousands of people around the world will be introduced to Irish culture and the best of Irish cinema over the coming weeks.
Sunniva O’Flynn, Head of Irish Film Programming – IFI
The 7th edition of the Belgrade Irish Festival will open on March 9th and will include a comprehensive selection of screenings including The Little Stranger, with director Lenny Abrahamson in attendance, Frank Berry’s Michael Inside, Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner, Lance Daly’s Black ’47, Marcus Robinson’s An Engineer Imagines and three documentaries from Sé Merry Doyle: Dreaming of the Quiet Man, Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien and Patrick Kavanagh: No Man’s Fool. Sé Merry Doyle will also travel to the festival to present the screenings.
The Irish Film Festival Russia, which takes place in Moscow from March 13-24 and in St Petersburg from March 15-17, also offers a comprehensive selection of new and recent releases including Mark O’Rowe’s The Delinquent Season, Rebecca Daly’s Good Favour, Ryan Tohill and Andrew Tohill’s The Dig, Hugh O’Conor’s Metal Heart and Simon Fellows’s Steel Country. Rebecca Daly, Hugh O’Conor and Moe Dunford will be special guests of the festival.
Elsewhere in Europe, FGM documentary Jaha’s Promise will screen in Tirana, The 34th: The Story of Marriage Equality will show in Nicosia, The Breadwinner will visit Zagreb and the Sarajevo Irish Festival, Metal Heart will take a bow at the St Patrick’s Film Festival in Luxembourg, while the Irish Film Festa in Rome will serve up a tasty menu of Irish cinematic treats from March 27-31.
North America remains a perennial hive of activity with festivals in Toronto, Montreal, Ontario, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Seattle all taking place throughout the month. South America also finds itself on the itinerary this year as Michael Inside, The Camino Voyage and The Drummer and the Keeper travel to Irish Cultural Week in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Finally, closer to home, a number of events in the UK will showcase Irish film including Tyneside Cinema’s screening of Lenny Abrahamson’s Adam and Paul, and the London Irish Centre’s screenings of The Camino Voyage and Sanctuary.
IFI INTERNATIONAL IN MARCH
1-3 March: Toronto Irish Film Festival – Toronto, Canada
2 March: South Side Irish Parade Film Festival – Chicago, USA
2 March: Valencia Irish Cultural Association – Valencia, Spain
2 March: San Francisco Irish Documentary Film Festival – San Francisco, USA
7 March: Craic Fest – New York, USA
7-24 March: China Women’s Film Festival – Hong Kong, China
8 March: Cinegael Montreal – Montreal, Canada
9–17 March: Belgrade Irish Festival – Belgrade, Serbia
10 March: UN International Women’s Week Film Festival – Tirana, Albania
11 March: Tyneside Cinema – Newcastle, UK
12 March: IRL Festival – Ontario, Canada
12 March: London Irish Centre and IFI present – London, UK
12 March: Oscar Forever – Nicosia, Cyprus
12-17 March: Irish Cultural Week – Porto Alegre, Brazil
13–24 March: Irish Film Festival Russia – Moscow / St. Petersburg, Russia
15 March: Slottsbio – Uppsala, Sweden
16 March: Sarajevo Irish Festival – Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
16-17 March: Irish Heritage Club Seattle – Seattle, USA
17 March: Inicijativa za engleski jezik i kulturu – Zagreb, Croatia
18 March: St. Patrick’s Film Luxembourg – Luxembourg
20 March: St Patrick’s screening – Lusaka, Zambia
22 March: Boston Irish Film Festival presents a gala screening – Boston, USA
22 March: Cinegael Montreal – Montreal, Canada
26 March: London Irish Centre and IFI present – London, UK
27-31 March: Irish Film Festa Rome – Rome, Italy
29–31 March: Ottawa Irish Film Festival – Ottawa, Canada