The programme for the 17th Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival has been announced. Ireland’s premier film event returns to the capital from February 20th to March 3rd.
Some of the world's leading movie stars and filmmakers will fly in for the festival.
The programme features over 125 events across 12 days including the finest local and international feature films, short films, documentaries, events and more.
Tickets are available here.
The Opening Gala and Irish premiere of Papi Chulo will kick off the festival. The new film is from Irish director John Butler, known for the award winning Handsome Devil and The Stag.
Joining John on the red carpet for the premiere will be the stars of the film, Matt Bomer, known for A Normal Heart, Magic Mike and The Magnificent Seven, and his co-star Alejandro Patiño.
The comedy drama tells the story of a well-heeled, lonely, gay TV weatherman who strikes up an unusual friendship with an older straight migrant worker from Mexico and deals with themes of friendship, class, ethnicity and economic migration.
The Office star Stephen Merchant visits the Festival for the premiere of his new movie, Fighting With My Family. The film tells the story of the rise of WWE Superstar Paige. Merchant wrote and directed the film.
2019 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominee, Killarney actor Jessie Buckley, attends Virgin Media DIFF with her new film Wild Rose for the Closing Gala.
Starring alongside the much-loved and twice Oscar-nominated Julie Walters and Hotel Rwanda’s Sophie Okonedo, Jessie plays Rose-Lynn Harlan who dreams of getting out of Glasgow and making it as a singer in Nashville.
Other high profile guests to walk the red carpet at the Festival include Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbour), Lucy Fry(Wolf Creek) and Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver) who visit for the world premiere of She’s Missing.
The drama thriller by Irish writer and director Alexandra McGuinness is about a young woman, Heidi, whose best friend goes missing at a rodeo after meeting a mysterious man.
Irish Features
The programme is packed with a terrific line-up of new Irish features. Neil Jordan’s Greta, a psychological thriller about a lonely, mysterious widow whose friendship with a naïve young woman becomes increasingly disturbing. The film stars Kick-Ass’ Chloë Grace Moretz alongside César Award-winning French actress Isabelle Huppert whose performance is described as a dark, delicious treat.
Meanwhile, Dark Lies The Island, written by Irish author Kevin Barry and starring some of our best acting talent including Pat Shortt, Charlie Murphy, Tommy Tiernan and Moe Dunford is a pitch-black comedy centring on a small Irish town over a week-long period.
Documentaries
Audiences’ continued love of documentaries is reflected in the 2019 programme. Maiden is the critically acclaimed sailing documentary which centres on the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989 skippered by Tracy Edwards and also featuring Irish woman Angela Heath on the crew.
Irish produced Shooting the Mafia is Kim Longinotto’s powerful documentary, through the eyes and lens of photographer Letizia Battaglia. The film strips back the glamorous image of the Sicilian Mafia, showing the harsh reality of life, death and business at the hands of those who wield it.
Virgin Media DIFF also hosts the world premiere of Land Without God is a deeply personal documentary which movingly centres on Mannix Flynn and his family as they recall the effects of decades of institutional abuse, and the impact it had, and continues to have, on their lives.
Shorts
This year’s shorts programme includes some exciting titles, including Psychic, Brendan Gleeson's directorial debut. The film is about a charismatic psychic and his two manipulative sons who are gaining a cult following, played by his real-life sons Domhnall and Brian.
Oscar long listed and BAFTA nominated Wren Boys is the story of a Catholic priest from Cork who drives his nephew to prison to marry a maverick gay inmate on a bleak Stephen’s Day.
While War Paint, written by and starring Yasmine Akram, who previously starred in TV’s Sherlock, is the dark story of an enigmatic narcissist who befriends a despondent loner from her book club and drags her on a gruesome misadventure.
The Inspirations Strand of the festival features movies chosen by some of Ireland’s best loved authors, including Tana French who selects Picnic At A Hanging Rock, Peter Weir’s 1975 classic, widely acclaimed for its sense of mystery, sexual fear and hysteria, stunning cinematography and cultural undertones.
Liz Nugent has chosen Perfume: The Story of a Murderer starring Ben Whishaw as a perfumier who uses the scents most evocative to him to create his unique fragrances.
Finally, Sinead Gleeson picks Stanley Kubrick’s cult horror The Shining starring Jack Nicholson.
The Discovery Award
Virgin Media DIFF continues to recognise the new generation of film talent marking their place in the Irish film industry through the Discovery Award.
The 2019 nominees are:
- Writer/ Directors Alexandra McGuinness (She’s Missing)
- Oonagh Kearney (Five Letters To The Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain)
- Shane Collins (Dub Daze)
- Writers Darach McGarrigle (Low Tide)
- Jonathan Hughes (Mother, Mary)
- Director Ian Hunt Duffy (Low Tide)
- Production Designer & Art Director Alice Vignoles-Russell (The Trap)
- Make Up Artist Madonna Bambino (Low Tide)
- Producer Roisín Geraghty (Five Letters To The Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain)
Filmgoers will also have the chance select the Virgin Media Audience Award, their favourite film from the programme. Other awards include best Documentary and Short.
Fantastic Flix
The Fantastic Flix strand of the festival for mini movie fans marks the 40th anniversary of one of pop culture’s most iconic movies, The Muppet Movie, and also celebrates difference and diversity in film with highlights including Rosie & Moussa which looks at embracing multiculturalism; Kenyan film Rafiki, a gorgeous LGBT film which shows how love can bloom even in difficult circumstances; and a visit to Dublin by Bo Burnham for the Irish premiere of his new movie Eighth Grade.
Events
The Surprise Film continues to be one of the most popular events in the Virgin Media DIFF programme but, as always, its identity remains a tightly-guarded secret known only to the Festival Director.
Another exciting event from the Festival’s Creative Catalyst series, which recognises the passionate advocates who are changing what we see on screen, is Sean Bailey in Conversation with Eoin Colfer and sees the author of the Artemis Fowl series chat with the President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production. A 25-year industry veteran, Bailey’s feature film producing credits include Disney’s Tron: Legacy and Miramax’s Gone, Baby, Gone.
Previously announced events include An Evening With David Shire, a career retrospective interview with the Academy Award and two-time Grammy winning composer hosted by Aedín Gormley and the Irish premiere of Australian comedy drama The Merger, which will also tour to six other Irish venues around the country.
98FM is delighted to be a partner of the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival
