EU and MEDIA Film News December 2024

The Irish members of Europa Cinemas include:

• IFI, Dublin and IFI@Home
• Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
• Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin
• Palás, Galway
• Access Cinema Network of regional cinema clubs
• Volta VOD online
• MyCinema.ie is an EU-supported platform, operated by access>CINEMA Ireland, on which you can you can rent a curated selection of the best world cinema.

A Season of Classic Films: A FOCUS ON FLORA KERRIGAN IFI Dublin, 21st December

A Season of Classic Films is a series of free film screenings and parallel activities across Europe designed to attract younger audiences to our shared cinematic cultural heritage. The programme looks to raise awareness of the work of European film archives, connecting the public with cinema history and the significance of film preservation. Most of the films are premiere digital restorations and some screenings include live performances and educational interactive sessions. All films are available with English subtitles. Additionally, French or other subtitles are in some cases available. This is an initiative of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) with the support of the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme. The screenings will take place between June and December 2024 in cinemas across Europe and online.

Focus on Flora Kerrigan at the Irish Film Institute, 3.30pm, 21st December

Rediscovered experimental films by Irish filmmaker Flora Kerrigan. Restored and presented by the Irish Film Institute. The programme will be accompanied by improvisational pianist Paul Smyth and double bass virtuoso John Edwards.

Amateur filmmaker Flora Kerrigan was a keen member of the Cork Cine Society in the late 1950s and 1960s. Over eight years, she crafted remarkable animation and live-action shorts on 8mm film, earning international accolades and an airing on RTÉ. The surreal playfulness of her animations belies the painstaking meticulousness of their production, while her live-action films, featuring friends and family, are absurd, comedic, haunting and, most strikingly, explore female sexuality and desire. Following her relocation to the UK in the late 1960s, Kerrigan’s work faded into obscurity until it was recently rediscovered through a collaboration between the IFI Irish Film Archive and Maynooth University.

The films will be accompanied by renowned avant-garde free-improvisational pianist Paul G. Smyth and double bass virtuoso John Edwards. Restored with support from ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes and the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

LUX Audience Award 2025

Five films have been shortlisted for the 2025 LUX Audience Award. Click on the films above to find out where to watch them. Then, it’s your turn to decide who will win. Watch as many films as you want and rate the five nominated films from one (poor) to five stars (excellent).

Rate by the five nominated films by April 2025 and don't miss the chance to win a range of exciting prizes, including a trip to the European Parliament to attend the LUX Award Ceremony in April 2025 and meet directors and film crews of the nominees.

1. Animal directed by Sofia Exarchou (Greece, Austria, Romania, Cyprus, Bulgaria). Feature film. Under the hot Greek sun, the animateurs at an all-inclusive island resort prepare for the busy touristic season. Kalia is the leader of the pack. Paper decors, glossy costumes and dance shows fill the stage. As summer intensifies and the work pressure builds up, their nights become violent and Kalia's struggle is revealed in the darkness. But when the spotlights turn on again, the show must go on.
2. Dahomy directed by Mati Diop (France, Senegal, Benin). Feature film. It's November 2021 and 26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of others, these artefacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. But what attitude to adopt to these ancestors’ homecoming in a country that had to forge ahead in their absence? The debate rages among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi.
3. Flow directed by Gints Zilbalodis (Latvia, France, Belgium). Animation. The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.
4. Intercepted directed by Oksana Karpovych (Canada, France, Ukraine). Documentary. What drives the people who come to your country to wage war? Intercepted is an attempt to find an answer by showing two parallel worlds. The camera registers images of destruction in unhurried shots, in which we see Ukrainian villages, towns, houses and motorways after their liberation from the Russian occupation.
5. Julie Keeps Quiet directed by Leonardo van Dijl (Belgium, Sweden). Feature film. As the star player at an elite tennis academy, Julie’s life revolves around the game she loves. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club's players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet...

Kinopolis Polish Film Festival, 5th to 8th December at IFI Dublin

The line-up of films in this year’s IFI Kinopolis serves as a snapshot of not just the best of new Polish cinema, but also of a society that, like that of Ireland, has become increasingly diversified and enriched by the arrival, acceptance, and integration of the richness of other cultures into their own.

• The Girl with the Needle, 5th December
• It's Not My Film, 6th December
• Minghun, 6th December
• People, 7th December
• White Courage, 7th December
• Sparrow, 7th December
• The Dog, 8th December
• Sexmission, 8th December
• Simona Kossak, 8th December

Booking Information: Cinema tickets cost €14.00 each. Packages*: 3 films for €40 (IFI Member) or €45 (Non-Member) / 5 films for €60 (IFI Member) or €65 (Non-Member). These packages can only be booked in-person or by calling the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477. Free list suspended for IFI Kinopolis Festival.

All We Imagine As Light, Lighthouse Dublin and Pálás Galway

All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia is a collaboration between India, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy. The film won the Grand Prix and the Special Mention of AFCAE (Association Française des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai). Supported by Creative Europe MEDIA.

Prabha is a dedicated and hardworking nurse whose absent husband moved abroad shortly after their arranged marriage. Anu, her younger roommate and colleague at the nearby hospital, is involved in a clandestine relationship with a Muslim man. The widowed Parvati, to whom Prabha lends a sympathetic ear, is being pressured by property developers to move out of her home.

'After her highly acclaimed debut with the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia has taken her undeniable style, a blend of poetry and realism, into fictional territory with the bewitching All We Imagine as Light, which went straight into competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival,' writes Fabien Lemercier in this review of the film on Cineuropa.

Paradise is Burning, IFI@Home

Paradise is Burning (Paradiset Brinner) directed by Mika Gustafson. At the age of 16, Laura (Bianca Delbravo) is the eldest of three sisters living in one of Sweden’s less salubrious suburbs. Seemingly abandoned by their addict mother, Laura has assumed parenting duties for 12-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad) and 7-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg). Without adult supervision or regular income, the three live in an atmosphere of barely-controlled chaos, doing their utmost not to attract the attention of any authorities who might feel obliged to step in and take charge. However, time runs out when Social Services call looking to meet the girls’ mother, sending Laura on a quest to find someone to play the role so that the three tightly-bonded sisters might stay together. Supported by Creative Europe MEDIA.

Housewife of the Year, Triskel Arts Centre, 5th to 8th December

Winner of Best Irish Feature Documentary at Galway Film Fleadh 2024, this documentary tells the story of Ireland’s treatment of women through the prism of a unique, surreal, live televised competition, that must be seen to be believed, where a generation of Irish women competed in front of a live audience for the title of ‘Housewife of the Year’. The former contestants share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene laundries, financial vulnerability, boredom and shame and of course, of being contestants in the competition. It’s the story of a resilient generation of women and how they changed a country.

That They May Face the Rising Sun, RTE 1, Stephens' Day, 26th December

Over Christmas, the MEDIA supported and award winning Irish film, That They May Face the Rising Sun by Pat Collins will screen on RTE One on Stephen's Day.

That They May Face the Rising Sun is an adaptation of the final novel from John McGahern, directed and co-written by Pat Collins. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play, and the passing seasons.

Irish company, South Wind Blows, received Creative Europe MEDIA development support for the film.

So This is Christmas, RTÉ One Wednesday, 18th December at 9:35pm.

Ken Wardrop’s documentary So This Is Christmas will make its national TV debut this Christmas on RTÉ One next Wednesday, December 18th at 9:35pm.

The documentary is an emotional journey featuring five ordinary characters as they navigate personal dilemmas triggered by Christmas. Brought to life in a creative documentary form, the film explores the deeper complexities that emerge when expectations collide with reality. Directed by Ken Wardrop and produced by Venom Film who received development funding for the project from Creative Europe MEDIA.

Read an IFTN interview with Ken Wardrop.