The 37th Galway Film Fleadh will feature 31 world premieres, and 11 European premieres from 44 countries, plus 46 Irish premieres, totalling 96 feature films overall.
Screenings will be held at the Town Hall Theatre and Pálás cinema between Tuesday, July 8, and Sunday, July 13.
Director Of Programming for the Galway Film Fleadh, Maeve McGrath, said she was particularly enthused about the quality of Irish talent both in front of and behind the camera, with 40 film makers making their debuts.
“The biggest win for the Fleadh this year is doubling the amount of Irish language feature films we will screen. The increase in the funding of Irish language film is reaping rewards… and we are proud to be a place where emerging film makers can share their first film with a supportive audience.”
Scannáin
The Irish programme will feature 44 Irish feature films, The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan, Gerry Adams - A Ballymurphy Man, Solitary, Immrám, Sunphlowers, Listen To The Land Speak, Girls & Boys, Love Lane United, We Only Want The Earth, Abode, A Visual Storm - Aurelio Caminati and Loch Gréine | A Bright Vision. The Irish premiere of Sanatorium follows a summer at a place of healing, love and renewal and the European premiere of Elisa in Wonderland is a poetic, unsettling film blurring fantasy, delusion, beauty, and dread.
The 11 Irish language films include Báíte which follows the discovery of a body in a rural village; Dance Master featuring dancer Breandán de Gallai; Tumtha reveals the story of the Coláistí Ullmhúcháin; Beo Faoin BhFód looks at how Mick Meaney was buried six foot under the London soil in a simple wooden coffin in 1968; Éire agus na Chéad Náisiúin tells the untold story of how Irish people interacted with the First Nations of North America and Trad follows Shóna and Mickey on a cross-country journey of adventure, romance, and musical exploration.
International
The World Cinema Competition features films that have appeared at other international festivals, including EEL, where a woman with a painful past meets a man haunted by nightmares; The Blue Trail follows Tereza journeying through the tributaries of the Amazon; The Jacket is an intimate portrait of Jamal Hindawi, a Palestinian artist making political theatre in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp; The Cowboy is an uplifting story about accepting who you are; Welded Together sees a young welder try to protect her sister from a harsh reality; Mother of Snow Cranes tells the story of an incredible woman's extraordinary life, from love to tragedy, to revolution; Winter in Sokcho awakens questions about a woman’s identity, and that of her French father, and Dragonfly is a narrative that unflinchingly shines a light on the universal issue of social care, caring for the elderly and the marginalised.
Fleadh CEO, Miriam Allen, said she is expecting a lot of industry business to be discussed at the margins of the festival.
“Peripheral Visions, our European cinema competition for first and second feature film makers features a €5,000 prize, and in 2025, the films featured are from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Romania, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, and France,” she said.
The Fleadh will screen films from 40 debut film makers in its New Dimensions strand, while its CineFleadh Collection will present unmissable creations including the international premiere of Adult Children, the Irish premiere of Cast of Shadows which examines how Frances Hubbard Flaherty was the person who made all her husband’s major films happen; Omaha about the journey of a father who loves his children, and The Life of Chuck is a life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella.
Separate strands
The Architecture on Film strand includes Lost Silverfish of Berlin on once prominent structures in Germany, and Maurice & I about the partnership of Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney, amongst other films.
The GENERATION strand has films featuring coming-of-age stories, while The Artist on Film strand covers video game design and a documentary on photographer Steve Schapiro.
In the films in the Defender strand, women take over religion in Girls and Gods, volunteers find and return the bodies of migrants to their families in Spare My Bones, Coyote!, five citizens are forced to leave Sudan for East Africa following the outbreak of war in Khartoum, an elected councilwoman aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions in Cutting Through Rocks, a retired sea captain sparks a journey of self-discovery in The Captain and a Palestinian teen confronts Israeli soldiers at a West Bank protest in All That’s Left of You. The story of the recently deceased Sunny Jacobs is recounted in Stolen Lives.
What The Fleadh?! returns with a genre cinema programme where anything might happen, with films from the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, Ireland, the USA, and France including the world premieres of The Morrigan and I Hope We can Still be Friends, the Irish premiere of The Thing With Feathers and the European premiere of The Wolf, the Fox & The Leopard.
Music in film
Music on Film includes stories about a legendary music industry figure BP Fallon in Rock’n’Roll Wizard, a tormented love story between a young artist couple in Rock Bottom, an iconic and influential Irish musician in In Time-Dónal Lunny, the best band you never heard of in Once We Were Punks, a heart-tugging story about a talent gone too soon in The Essence of Eva, a fun look at one of music’s most groundbreaking bands in Boy George & Culture Club and a film that examines the rich musical heritage of Ireland’s Traveller community in Ag Taisteal Siar.
There will also be a curated programme of film premiers from France in association with the French embassy in Dublin.
The Fleadh will screen over 100 Irish and International shorts, which will be in competition for the Fleadh’s Oscar qualifying prizes.
The Galway Film Fair will be running alongside the Fleadh with masterclasses in Directing and Casting led by Ali Abbasi (Border, Holy Spider, The Apprentice ) and Maureen Hughes, Louise Kiely and Luci Lenox respectively while Constance Tsang (Blue Sun Palace ) attends as a guest speaker for Facing In/Facing Out: A Development Workshop for Screenwriters created in collaboration with Stowe Story Labs.
See www.galwayfilmfleadh.com or contact the Town Hall Theatre box office on 091 569777.
