We take a look at some of the Irish films coming your way in 2021. We’ll update films, premieres, release dates and platforms and add reviews and interviews as they come in.
To The Moon
DIR: Tadhg O’Sullivan
In cinemas 26th November 2021
Made primarily from international cinematic archive (130 films from 25 countries) in combination with literary fragments and original moonlit cinematography filmed across five continents, To The Moon steps lightly through the ages and ideas that people have drawn from the moon to meditate on the fragile and fleeting nature of humanity.
“soulful ode to a body that binds the softest of shadows with the medium of indelible memory” – June Butler
Podcast Interview with Tadhg O’Sullivan, Director of ‘To The Moon’
Breaking Out
DIR: Michael McCormack
In cinemas 19th November 2021
Filmed over ten years, Michael McCormack’s award winning documentary portrays Fergus O’Farrell, the charismatic voice of Interference, one of the most compelling and influential bands to emerge from the Irish music scene in the 1990s.
“a truly inspiring and gut-wrenching film that deserves to be seen on the big screen” – Brian Ó Tiomáin
Interview with Michael McCormack, Director of ‘Breaking Out’
Love Yourself Today
DIR: Ross Killeen
In cinemas 3rd November 2021
Centres around the music of Irish singer songwriter Damien Dempsey but also turns the lens onto his fans. Every Christmas in Dublin, the crowds gather for Damo’s Christmas gig at Vicar Street. For many, these shows have become a cathartic ritual, a safe space where emotions can be laid bare. Through the prism of the concert, we meet Dempsey and three members of the audience. We hear their stories, unravel their grief and find the light in the darkness through communal art.
a warm, uplifting film and a love letter to Ireland’s troubled and wonderfully complex capital – Gemma Creagh
Interview with Ross Killeen, Director of ‘Love Yourself Today’
The Nest
DIE/WRI:Sean Durkin
Premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2020
In cinemas 3rd November 2021
Charismatic entrepreneur Rory relocates his wife Allison and their children Sam and Ben from suburban America to his native England with ambitious dreams of profiting from booming 1980’s London. While Rory thrives chasing lofty deals in the city, Allison and the kids struggle to adapt. Once a businesswoman in her own right, Allison finds herself idle and resuming the role of housewife in a run-down mansion they can’t afford to furnish. As the eerie isolation of their new home drives the family further apart, and the promise of a lucrative new beginning starts to unravel, Rory and Allison have to face the unwelcome truths lying beneath the surface of their marriage.
CAST: Jude Law, Carrie Coon
Arracht
DIR/WRI: Tom Sullivan
Premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019
In cinemas 15th October 2021
Set during the famine, a man loses everything and is accused of a murder. On the run for three years and with the help of a mysterious girl he attempts to rebuild his life. However, his past however comes back to haunt him.
CAST: Dónall Ó Héalaí, Saise Ní Chuinn, Michael McElhatton, Peter Coonan
“wonderfully shot and beautifully scored” – Sarah Cullen
Podcast: Interview with Tom Sullivan, Writer/Director of ‘Arracht’
Deadly Cuts
(DIR/WRI Rachel Carey)
In cinemas 8th October 2021
Dublin-set hairdressing comedy
“Part farcical pantomime, part social satire” – Phoebe Moore
Father of Cyborgs
DIR: David Burke, Seán Ó Cualáin
In cinemas 24th September 2021
Irish neurologist Phil Kennedy made global headlines in the late 1990s for implanting wire electrodes in the brain of a ‘locked-in’ patient to control a computer cursor with their mind. Kennedy became known as ‘The Father of the Cyborgs’. Travelling to South America in 2014, he made further headlines when tiny electrodes were implanted inside his brain in order to continue his research. The film looks at the ethical quandaries presented by his self-experimentation.
Podcast: Interview with Director of ‘Father of the Cyborgs’
Green Knight
DIR/WRI: David Lowery
In cinemas 24th September 2021
A retelling of the 14th Century tale, ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’. Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s cousin, beheads the Green Knight easily. His opponent survives, however, and the Green Knight demands that Sir Gawain uphold his half of the oath and return in one year to be beheaded. Gawain leaves the court to spend the year traveling.
CAST: Barry Keoghan, Dev Patel, Alicia Vikande
Rose Plays Julie
DIR/WRI: Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy
Premiere @ BFI London Film Festival 2019
In cinemas 17th September 2021
Rose is at university studying veterinary science. An only child, she has enjoyed a loving relationship with her adoptive parents. However, for as long as Rose can remember she has wanted to know who her biological parents are and the facts of her true identity. After years trying to trace her birth mother, Rose now has a name and a number. All she has to do is pick up the phone and call. When she does it quickly becomes clear that her birth mother has no wish to have any contact. Rose is shattered. A renewed and deepened sense of rejection compels her to keep going. Rose travels from Dublin to London in an effort to confront her birth mother, Ellen and learns a secret that has been kept hidden for over 20 years.
CAST: Ann Skelly, Orla Brady, Aidan Gillen, Annabell Rickerby
“An uneasy and suspenseful collision of social drama, revenge thriller, and classical tragedy, Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s Rose Plays Julie defies a quick or easy analysis.” —Cathy Butler
Herself
DIR: Phyllida Lloyd • WRI: Clare Dunne, Malcolm Campbell
Premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2020
In cinemas 10th September 2021
The story of Sandra, who on the surface of it, is a young Mum struggling to provide her two young daughters with a warm, safe, happy home to grow up in. Beneath the surface, Sandra has a steely determination to change their lives for the better and when it becomes clear that there are no other options left to her, she decides to build it herself from scratch.
CAST: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill
“a compelling drama, simultaneously heart-rending and uplifting” – Sarah Cullen
Interview with Phyllidia Lloyd, Director of ‘Herself’
Wildfire
DIR/WRI: Cathy Brady
Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2020
In cinemas 3rd September 2021
The story of two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has gone missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is re-ignited. Together they unearth their mother’s past, but as they uncover the secrets and resentments that have been buried deep down, it all threatens to overwhelm them.
CAST: Nika McGuigan, Nora-Jane Noone
Redemption of a Rogue
DIR/WRI: Phillip Doherty
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2020
In cinemas 27th August 2021
Carrying a doctor’s bag containing a rope, Jimmy, the prodigal son, returns home to the austere beauty of Cavan to visit his ailing father and seek redemption before he intends to say goodbye to the world. As Jimmy’s father breathes his last, thunder rumbles and rain starts to pour. However, there is a condition in the will: his father cannot be buried on a wet day.As the rain continues, Jimmy embarks on a sacrificial and outlandish journey to rid himself of his guilt and shame from the past, ultimately redeeming himself through love.
CAST: Aaron Monaghan, Aisling O’Mara, Kieran Roche, Pat McCabe, Shane Connaughton
Interview with Writer / Director Philip Doherty & Actor Aaron Monaghan of ‘Redemption of A Rogue’
The Bright Side
DIR: Ruth Meehan • WRI: Ruth Meehan, Jean Pasley
Premiere at Cork International Film Festival 2020
In cinemas 20th August 2021
World-weary stand-up comedian Kate McLoughlin wants out. Her morbid prayers are answered in the form of a cancer diagnosis. For Kate, this is the perfect excuse. However, a last supper of dodgy shellfish and champagne puts paid to her overdose attempt and to placate her family she begrudgingly agrees to undergo treatment.
Armed with staggering levels of cynicism and a plethora of blackly comic jokes, Kate gets off to a bad start with the four other women she encounters on the chemo ward, whose unsolictited friendships are destined to blow open her shut-down heart.
CAST: Gemma-Leah Devereux, Siobhan Cullen, Karen Egan, Barbara Brennan, Derbhle Crotty, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor
Boys From County Hell
DIR/WRI: Chris Baugh
Premiere at 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
In cinemas 6th August 2021
Horror fans know Bram Stoker and his seminal novel Dracula, but what about Ireland’s Six Mile Hill? Word has it, Stoker visited Six Mile Hill in the mid-1890s, heard about the local legend of a humanoid bloodsucker who’s been buried under a pile of rocks for centuries, and then, shortly after, wrote about a certain undead Transylvanian—without crediting Six Mile Hill as his inspiration. Or so young ruffian Eugene Moffat and his friends like telling horror-loving tourists as a way to spice up their otherwise dull blue-collar lives. The thing is, they don’t actually believe in vampires. But when Eugene and his father are tasked with digging through the land surrounding that pile of rocks, they inadvertently awaken Dracula’s unsung inspiration.
CAST: Jack Rowan, Nigel O’Neill, Louisa Harland
“something you should not be frightened to see” – Liam Hanlon
Interview with Chris Baugh, Writer/Director of ‘Boys From County Hell’
Poster Boys
DIR/WRI: Dave Minogue
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2020
In cinemas 9th July 2021.
In a bold bid to save Al’s job, they steal his mam’s camper-van, become best friends and embark on a criss-cross adventure putting up posters all over Ireland.
CAST: Trevor O’Connell, Ryan Minogue-Lee,Aoife Spratt
Songs For While I’m Away
DIR: Emer Reynolds
In cinemas 1st June 2021.
The life and music of Phil Lynott, telling the story of how a young black boy from working class 1950’s Dublin, became Ireland’s greatest Rock Star. As lead singer of Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott was a songwriter, a poet, a dreamer, a wildman. Told extensively through the words of Phil himself and focusing on some of his iconic songs, the film gets to the heart of Philip, the father, the husband, the friend, the son, the rock icon, the poet and the dreamer.
The 8th
DIR: Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, Maeve O’Boyle
Premiere at Hot Docs Film Festival
Streaming from 25th May 2021
The 8th traces Ireland’s campaign to remove the 8th Amendment – a constitutional ban on abortion. Following the dynamic female leaders of the pro-choice campaign as they engineer the impossible this dramatic story is underscored by a vivid exploration of the wrenching failures that led to this defining moment in Ireland’s history.
“a powerful testament to the years of work done by activists to make Irish society better.” —Loretta Goff
Podcast with Maeve O’Boyle
Wild Mountain Thyme
DIR/WRI: John Patrick Shanley
Streaming from 30th April 2021
Passionate, determined and smart, Rosemary Muldoon has been in love with her neighbor Anthony Reilly since they were 10 years old. It seems that everyone in their farming community knows they were meant for each other — except Anthony.
An eccentric introvert, Anthony has spent his entire life working on the family farm alongside his father Tony. The aging Tony blindsides Anthony with his plan to sell the farm to Adam, his wealthy American nephew, because he doubts his son has what it takes to run it. And when Adam comes to visit, his obvious interest in Rosemary complicates the situation further.
With everything that’s important to him about to slip through his fingers, Anthony has to move quickly, but a series of losses and his own certainty that he is unlovable leaves his future — and Rosemary’s — in doubt
CAST:
Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Jon Hamm, Dearbhla Molloy, Christopher Walken
Streaming from 30th April 2021
Here Are The Young Men (DIR/WRI: Eoin Macken)
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2020
Streaming from 30th April 2021
Dublin 2003. Aimless teenager Matthew (Chapman) and his disaffected friends leave school into a social vacuum of drink, drugs and thrill-seeking in one last summer of adolescence. Matthew romantically yearns after his free-spirited friend Jen (Taylor-Joy) and struggles to maintain his increasingly disturbing relationship with the magnetic but sadistic Kearney (Cole). Whilst their precocious friend Rez (Walsh-Peelo) has started to succumb to paranoia and depression.
Matthew and the group are soon led by the deranged Kearney into a world of nihilistic violence, falling into shocking acts of transgression that will irrevocably change their lives.
CAST: Anya Taylor-Joy, Travis Fimmel, Susan Lynch
“an engaging reflection on toxic masculinity and the futility of the youthful highs that quickly lose their lustre – drink, drugs, and video games” —Irene Falvey
Groundswell (Johnny Gogan)
Streaming from 30th April 2021
Filmed in the Irish border counties and in Pennsylvania, the film details the plans of oil and gas company Tamboran to establish a major gas field in the border counties of Leitrim and Fermanagh in 2011.
“Sobering and informative” – Sarah Cullen
Podcast – Johnny Gogan (Groundswell)
Henry Glassie: Field Work (Pat Collins)
Premiere @ Toronto International Film Festival 2019
Streaming from 16th April 2021
A portrait of the most renowned American folklorist and ethnologist, Henry Glassie, now in his seventies. With a view of Glassie’s life’s work, the film displays the director’s trademark eye for details of the deepest significance, and celebrates the people with whom he stands and their work. Glassie’s subject is folklore but his abiding love for the people who create it resonates throughout the film. Glassie’s long professional life encompasses the people and folklore of his native southern stages; from the sublime vocal purity of Ola Belle Reed whom he befriended and recorded in the sixties, to the potters, sculptors, metal workers, gilders and painters of sacred art in Brazil, the ceramic masters and the women rug makers and weavers of Turkey and the story tellers and singers of Ballymenone on the Northern Irish border.
“enthralling “—Seán Crosson
Podcast with Pat Collins
Citizen Lane (DIR: Thaddeus O’Sullivan)
Streaming from 12th April 2021
Hugh Lane was an especially gifted art dealer and collector, whose ability to read and value a canvas garnered him huge wealth, influence and celebrity until his untimely death on the Lusitania in 1915. A man of multiple contradictions, he was by turns infuriatingly frugal or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts. His dream was to create a public Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin to show the work of living artists including his collection of great Impressionist paintings with works by Monet, Renoir and Manet.
Town of Strangers (DIR: Treasa O’Brien)
Premiere @ Galway Film Fleadh 2018
Streaming from 19th March 2021
A stranger arrives in the town of Gort and announces that auditions will be held in the town hall for a new film. “Come and tell me your stories, your dreams, your lies, your memories, any gossip. All genders, nationalities and languages welcome. No acting experience necessary” is announced by the director via a loudspeaker on her van as she drives through the town. One by one, people sit into an armchair on the set of a kitchen, surrounded by old props found in the Town Hall that could have been from John B Keane’s The Field, which had been produced by the local theatre group the year before. And they tell their stories….
” sensitive and engaging depiction of human connection, with all its fragilities, and, in doing so, beautifully reflects on contemporary rural Ireland”—Loretta Goff
Podcast with Treasa O’Brien
The Winter Lake (DIR: Phil Sheerin • WRI: David Turpin)
Premiere @ Galway Film Fleadh 2020
Streaming from 15th March 2021
Set in Sligo, The Winter Lake follows withdrawn teenager Tom who after making a grim discovery in a seasonal lake, discovers the truth about his neighbours, a father and daughter who are harbouring sinister secrets.
CAST: Anson Boon · Charlie Murphy, Emma Mackey.
“haunting, painful, gentle and hopeful”—Loretta Goff
Podcast with Phil Sheerin & David Turpin
The New Music (Chiara Viale)
Premiere @ IndieCork Film Festival 2019
Streaming from 18th January 2021
When talented classical pianist Adrian is diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease, his world falls apart. Afraid of the health implications and failing his family, Adrian runs away from home – destination Dublin. Finding a room in a shared apartment he meets Will , David and Jodie aka ‘The Cellmates’ – a rebellious punk band who practise what they preach. As a bond forms with his new-found friends, the band’s rock‘n’roll lifestyle and raucous music provide a lively distraction from his troubles.
The Cellmates are anything but uptight – will Adrian struggle to adjust, or could he find freedom in their chaos?
CAST: Cilléin McEvoy, Martina Babisova, Jack Fenton.
“a powerful debut from Italian director Chiara Viale”—Ciara Creedon
TBC
Be Good or Be Gone
DIR: Cathal Nally • WRI: Les Martin
Premiere at Garden State Film Festival 2020
Set over the course of 4 days in contemporary Dublin, the film follows the story of Ste and Weed , two petty criminal cousins, who receive temporary release from Mountjoy prison.
CAST: Les Martin, Declan Mills, Jenny Lee Masterson, Enya Martin, Brid McCarthy, Gerry Shanahan, Aoife King, Alan Sherlock, Ruth Hegarty, Graham Earley
Skin+Soul
DIR: Ciara Nic Chormaic
Premiere @ Dublin International Film Festival 2020
Skin+Soul was funded under the Arts Council Reel Art scheme which is designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme. Acclaimed photographer Perry Ogden returns to his fashion photography roots for his latest documentary. Told through the eyes – and the lens – of the photographer, the profound images that emerge onscreen have the effect of blurring the lines between the world of fashion and the real world.
“Rendering sublime into straightforward requires immense skills, of which Ogden has mastered every single one.” —June Butler
The Castle
DIR: Lina Lužytė
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2020
Set in Dublin, Monika has a dream to play a one in a lifetime concert. Her mother is sceptical and reluctant to support her daughter’s dreams, and so she sells their keyboard and forbids Monika from attending the concert. However, Monika stops at nothing to pursue her dream.
CAST: Barbora Bareikyte, Gabija Jaraminaite, Jurate Onaityte
“a family tragedy which explores the deleterious and dream-destroying effects of Ireland’s marginalising attitude towards immigration and poverty”—Sarah Cullen
DIR: Kim Bartley
A documentary set against the captivating backdrop of the Wyoming wilderness, Pure Grit follows Sharmaine, a Native American bareback racer, and her girlfriend Savannah, as they strive to overcome the ghosts of past abuse.
The Tribe of Gods
DIR: Loïc Jourdain
Premiere at Galway Film Fleadh 2020
Documentary about Tory Island off the coast of county Donegal in Ireland and its inhabitants.
“a skillful blend of storytelling, music, song, heartache, celebration, strength, hardship and resilience.”—Orla Monaghan
A Bend in the River
DIR/WRI: Colin Broderick
Premiere at Belfast Film Festival 2020
A writer returns home to Ireland, after spending twenty-five years in New York, to confront the ghosts of his past. To make sense of the Northern Ireland he remembers as a child, in comparison with the place he finds it upon his return, still minus a united Ireland.
CAST: John Duddy, Kathy Kiera Clarke, John McConnell, Brendan Broderick, John Connors, Nicola Boyle, Jacqueline Kealy
“a film which delves deep into the emotional landscape of re-visiting the past and demonstrates the effects of a landscape on a psyche.”—Irene Favey
2 Comments
Hi there.
You forgot our film The tribe of gods ?? , irish premiere a the Galway film fleadh and french and world premiere at the FIPADOC in 2 weeks. Screening the 20th.
Thanks
Best
Loic jourdain
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