The Audi Dublin International Film Festival returns 16th-26th February 2017 with a rich mix of homegrown films and films from across the world accompanied by top international and Irish guest talent across the eleven days and nights of the festival.
Here we take a look at the Irish films on offer at this year’s festival.
Maudie (Aisling Walsh)
Thurs, 16th Feb 2017 • 7:30pm @ Savoy 1
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Based on a true story, Maudie is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie Dowley (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched and with hands crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family, and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Although untrained, Maudie begins to paint scenes of her rural life in Nova Scotia, and the simplicity and joy they express attract attention, first with her neighbours, then with tourists, and eventually with an international audience. Unexpectedly, gruff and inarticulate Everett finds himself falling in love. Maudie charts Everett’s efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie’s deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.
Jim Sheridan, Vanessa Redgrave, Eric Bana and Susan Lynch will attend this screening.
The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan)
Sat, 18th Feb 2017 • 7:30pm @ Savoy 1
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Based on Sebastian Barry’s acclaimed novel, Jim Sheridan’s first Irish-set film since The Boxer (1997) explores the life and history of Roseanne McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave), a woman confined to the Roscommon Mental Hospital for 50 years. As the institution is about to close, Dr. Grene (Eric Bana) is sent to see whether she’s fit to be released. He’s intrigued by Roseanne’s eccentricities and her fierce attachment to her Bible, in which she’s been keeping a diary since she was first admitted. As he delves into her past, Dr. Grene gets to know the younger Roseanne (played by Rooney Mara) and eventually learns the terrible truth about her confinement. Shot in the starkly beautiful west of Ireland, The Secret Scripture uncovers a dark chapter in Ireland’s history.
Jim Sheridan and Vanessa Redgrave will attend this screening.
Amanda Coogan: Long Now (Paddy Cahill)
Sat 18th Feb 2017 • 12:00pm @ Irish Film Institute
An exploration of Coogan’s durational performance art practice, the film captures Coogan during a gruelling six-week live durational exhibition, I’ll sing you a song from around the town. Hosted in Dublin’s RHA Gallery, the exhibition became the gallery’s most successful and visited in its history. Spanning six weeks, Coogan performs live, for six hours a day, five days a week for the entire run. The film visually explores the exhibition’s beautiful live performance, interwoven with Coogan’s reflections on the work.
Amanda Coogan will attend this screening.
Without Name (Lorcan Finnegan)
Sat 18th Feb 2017 • 6:00pm @ Light House Cinema
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Eric, a troubled land surveyor, takes up a job in a remote forest. Deep in the woods, he becomes aware of a malevolent presence, an intelligence of sorts. A silhouette flits between trees. The place fascinates the fragmenting Eric as much as it disturbs him. Is his mind playing tricks on him or is there some ancient horror wishing him harm?
Lorcan Finnegan, Alan McKenna and Niamh Algar will attend this screening.
Pickups (Jamie Thraves)
Sat 18th Feb 2017 • 8:15pm @ Irish Film Institute
Pickups, the new film directed by Jamie Thraves, is about a man called Aidan (conveniently enough, played by Aidan Gillen) who is suffering from insomnia, back trouble and the breakdown of his marriage. Aidan finds solace in a number of strangers he picks up, although he’s now concerned someone is stalking him. Work is getting on top of him too, he murdered a couple of people last week and he still has more people to kill.
Jamie Thraves and Aidan Gillen will attend this screening.
Sanctuary (Len Collin)
Sat 18th Feb 2017 • 8:30pm @ Light House Cinema
Sanctuary on Tour:
Mon 20th Feb • 20:00 @ Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
Tue 21st Feb • 20:00 @ Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda
Wed 22nd Feb• 20:00 @ Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge
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Larry and Sophie are in love. What could be more natural for them than to want to be alone, together? They bribe the feckless Tom to book them into a hotel for an afternoon’s tryst and look forward to getting to know each other, like countless couples before them. But Larry and Sophie aren’t any couple – they both have intellectual disabilities and Tom is their care worker. By attempting to be intimate, they aren’t just breaking the rules – they’re breaking the law.
While Larry and Sophie try to figure out their feelings, their future and how to use a condom, their friends from the training centre escape the not so watchful eye of Tom and go on a joyful rampage through Galway.
Len Collin will attend this screening.
Sanctuary on Tour – Tickets available directly from the venues.
In Loco Parentis (Neasa Ní Chianáin, David Rane)
Mon, 20th Feb 2017 • 8:30pm @ Light House Cinema
Thurs, 23rd Feb 2017 • 2:00pm @ Light House Cinema
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John and Amanda teach Latin and Maths and English and Electric Guitar at a fantastical stately home turned school – previously the country seat of the eccentric Lord Headfort. A career of nearly fifty years is drawing to a close for the teachers who have become legends with the mantra: reading! rithmetic! rock n roll! …. but for pupil and teacher alike, leaving is the hardest lesson to learn.
Both screenings will follow by a Q+A with Neasa Ní Chianáin and David Rane.
Buy Tickets Mon • Buy Tickets Tue
The Piano Lesson (Ken Wardrop)
Mon 20th Feb 2017 • 6:30pm @ Irish Film Institute
The Piano Lesson charts the musical journey of numerous piano students through the commitment and pressure of the keyboard examinations. The piano lesson offers a unique window into our students’ lives. It is an opportunity to consider the impact that music, learning and creativity has. We examine relationships with their teachers, their counterparts, of course the music and definitely the pianos. We will discover meaningful truth in their successes and setbacks; unearthing charming curiosities that will make us laugh and cry.
Director Ken Wardrop will attend this screening.
Tomato Red (Juanita Wilson)
Sat 25th Feb 2017 • 8:45pm @ Light House Cinema
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Tells the tale of two siblings, Jamalee and Jason Merridew, and their ex-con sidekick Sammy Barlach. For Jamalee, her hair tomato red suitably matching her rage and ambition, their small town American life just won’t do.
Jamalee’s dreams are made in Hollywood, among tuxedos and palm trees. Jason, blessed with drop-dead good looks, is the local object of female obsession and their ticket out of town. However, he hills and hollows of the Ozarks can be a very dangerous place. Sammy is meant to be the muscle Jamalee and Jason need to get out, but not even he can protect them from anything.
Juanita Wilson and Anna Friel will attend this screening.
Nails (Dennis Bartok)
Mon 20th Feb 2017 • 8:45pm @ Cineworld
Dana Milgrom (Shauna Macdonald), a track coach survives a near-death car accident, only to find herself almost completely paralyzed and trapped inside her own body, forced to communicate via an artificial voice program. While recovering she becomes convinced that some evil presence exists inside her hospital room and is intent on killing her. No one believes her – not even her own husband and daughter, who think she’s experienced a mental breakdown.
Shauna Macdonald, Leah McNamara and Ross Noble will attend this screening.
Photo City (John Murphy, Traolach Ó Murchú)
Tue 21st Feb 2017 • 6:00pm @ Irish Film Institute
Rochester, NY is a city defined by photography. Once dominated by Kodak, the city now faces a new digital future. Photo City presents a portrait of photography itself as told through the lens of the citizens of a place defined by the art form. The film explores how the various strands of the city interact with photography, how its past informs its present, and how the resilience of its citizens perhaps suggests a future.
The King’s Choice (Erik Poppe)
Wed 22nd Feb 2017 • 8:40pm @ Cineworld
On the 9th of April 1940, German troops invade Oslo. The king of Norway is faced with a choice, which will change his nation forever.
Unless (Alan Gilsenan)
Wed 22nd Feb 2017 • 8:50pm @ Light House Cinema
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A Toronto writer struggles with her daughter’s decision to drop out of college and runaway… only to discover her living on the street pan-handling and refusing to speak, with a cardboard sign reading GOODNESS around her neck. Based on the novel by Carol Shields.
Alan Gilsenan will attend this screening.
Notes on Rave in Dublin (James Redmond)
Fri 24th Feb 2017 • 6:30pm @ Light House Cinema
Sun 26th Feb 2017 • 2:00pm @ Light House Cinema
A roller coaster ride through the birth pangs of dance music in our dirty old town. From the democratic romance of those early loved up dancefloors to how a cold social stratification and commercialisation crept back. That left it up to a network of outsider labels, pirates, and ravers to establish the indigenous scene that we now call our own. This is a story of how an underground works, mutates and survives.
Filmmaker in Attendance
Buy tickets Fri • Buy tickets Sat
The 4th Act (Turlough Kelly)
Sat 25th Feb 2017 • 6:15pm @ Cineworld
Sun 26th Feb 2017 • 4:30pm @ Light House Cinema
The story of the €1bn regeneration of Ballymun, a high-rise working-class community on the north side of Dublin, through the eyes of the community itself. Drawing on hundreds of hours of local and personal archives collated over the past thirty years, the film explores themes of loss, community, hope and defiance as the residents of Ballymun watch their familiar landscape and way of living disappear.
Filmmaker in Attendance
Buy tickets Sat • Buy tickets Sun
The Farthest (Emer Reynolds)
Sun 26th Feb 2017 • 2:00pm @ Savoy 1
It is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. More than 12 billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our Solar System and entering the void of deep space – the first manmade object ever to do so. Dying within its heart is a nuclear generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager 1 finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. In all likelihood Voyager will outlast humanity. The Farthest celebrates these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped.
Director Emer Reynolds and Voyager Project Manager (1977) John Casani will attend this screening.
Handsome Devil (John Butler)
| Sun 26th Feb 2017 | • 8:00pm | @ Savoy 1 |
Bullied outsider Ned and macho athlete Conor are forced to share a bedroom at their rugby-mad boarding school. Their unlikely friendship takes them both by surprise as they bond over music and begin practicing guitar together. After their supportive English teacher encourages them to enter a local talent competition, Conor faces increasing pressure to choose between “manly” athletic pursuits and his new love of music. Meanwhile Ned has to decide whether to betray his new friend’s trust to save his own skin. Ultimately, each learns the importance of bravery, loyalty, and finding one’s own voice.
Director John Butler and cast members Moe Dunford, Fionn O’Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott and Michael McElhatton will attend this screening.
Short Films @ ADIFF
Lily (Graham Cantwell)
ADIFF Shorts 1 • Sun 19th Feb 2017 • 4:00pm @ Light House Cinema
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A girl with a secret, on the cusp of becoming a young woman. When a misunderstanding with the beautiful and popular Violet leads to a vicious attack, Lily is faced with the greatest challenge of her young life.
Second to None (Vincent Gallagher)
ADIFF Shorts 1 • Sun 19th Feb 2017 • 4:00pm@ Light House Cinema
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Frederick Butterfield is tired of always being runner-up. When he becomes the world’s second oldest person, he hatches a plan to claim first place.
Gridlock (Ian Hunt Duffy)
ADIFF Shorts 1 • Sun 19th Feb 2017 • 4:00pm@ Light House Cinema
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Gridlock is a thriller set during a traffic jam on a country road. When a little girl goes missing from one of the cars, her father forms a desperate search party to find her, and soon everyone is a suspect.
Breathe (James Doherty)
ADIFF Shorts 2 • Fri 24th Feb 2017 • 6:00pm @ Light House Cinema
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A hardy Irish Traveller becomes increasingly concerned with his nine year-old son’s femininity and sets about toughening him up.
Din (Helen Flanagan)
ADIFF Shorts 2 • Fri 24th Feb 2017 • 6:00pm @ Light House Cinema
Even when sinister noises begin haunting him in his isolated house, ailing farmer Pat refuses to admit that he needs help.
The Nation Holds Its Breath (Kev Cahill)
ADIFF Shorts 3 • Sat 25th Feb 2017 • 6:15pm @ Light House Cinema
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On the day of the most important football match in Irish history, an expectant father is torn between witnessing the miracle of childbirth and the miracle of reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Gone (Patrick Maxwell)
ADIFF Shorts 3 • Sat 25th Feb 2017 • 6:15pm @ Light House Cinema
Paul returns to his hometown to find that his ex-lover has a child with another man. As old sparks reignite, jealousy and revenge lead to fatal consequences.
Check out the full programme here
