Aurélie Godet, Director of Programming at the Cork International Film Festival, introduces this year's packed installment of Ireland's oldest celebration of cinema, celebrating its 70th (!) edition and running from November 6th to November 16th.
When the Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) welcomed me early last year the festival's platinum jubilee (70th) was already in our conversations. Reflecting on how to respect and incorporate such a rich legacy while adapting to new filmgoing trends is a constant, interconnected dynamic.
The Cork Film Festival was the one that "made it" from a series of cultural events launched across the country in the early 1950’s with the common aim of exposing foreign visitors to Irish identity while also putting local audiences in contact with the best of international cinema. The long-lasting mandate of founding director Dermot Breen surely played a part in cementing the Festival’s role as the prime event in Ireland’s cultural life, as did the priority given to artistic freedom, with some films occasionally causing a stir when seen to be disrespecting catholic beliefs. This asserted the festival as a place of discovery and openness, key dimensions still very much central to our work, with many an occasion to discuss, together with our audience, issues that go beyond cinema and concern us as… humans.
Speaking of history, I’m particularly proud of our carefully curated selection of national films. And Ireland’s leading industry figure, Ed Guiney, will be with us for a conversation!
There is so much to learn still about how today’s Irish society was shaped and filmmakers young and old – but equally wise – play a vital role in casting lights from various angles to help us make sense of things.
You don't become a cinephile watching formatted content. You take cinema, and the people who make it, seriously, and passionately, by watching masterpieces.
Veteran filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle for example returns with the world premiere of his beautiful, deeply moving Theocracy – The Emigrants Artists, about artist Bernard Canavan, who was given up to an orphanage by his unmarried parents. The talented Dennis Harvey partnered with Sweden’s Lars Lovén to explore Ireland’s folk music scene in Celtic Utopia, a stupendous, highly enjoyable film which was awarded at the Locarno festival. You know most of the musicians in the film, from The Mary Wallopers and Lankum to Rising Damp, some of whom are coming to CIFF.
Our evening with Excalibur star Cherie Lunghi for a screening of Zardoz is unmissable for several reasons, the most concrete one being that the video messages sent in by the likes of Liam Neeson, Callum Turner and Brendan Gleeson for Disruptor Award recipient John Boorman will only be seen by the happy few in attendance.
I’m also thrilled to welcome Canadian filmmaker Anne Émond for her quirky apocalypse romcom Peak Everything, and Germany’s Namik Arslan for audience favourite The Moelln Letters. And Hugh Jackman’s performance in Song Sung Blue blew me away. Cork’s is one of the film’s first screenings in the world!
You don’t become a cinephile watching formatted content. You take cinema, and the people who make it, seriously, and passionately, by watching masterpieces. Films so close to perfection they send shivers down your spine and stay with you for good. I plan to make room in my schedule to enjoy one of these all-time classics together with the audience: this gift to myself will be Once Upon a Time in the West. I’ve never seen it on a big screen. Have you?
The 70th Cork International Film Festival takes place from November 6 to November 16, 2025 - find out more here
