‘Everybody to Kenmure Street’ looks back on the morning a Glasgow neighbourhood found itself pulled into direct confrontation with immigration enforcement. The film revisits the infamous raid as deportation took place in full public view, focusing on the gathering that formed around the belligerent vehicles and the atmosphere that permeated the street as events stretched across the day. Built from civilian footage, interviews and reenactments, the tense situation plays out be

Dubliners will know this story all too well. It’s hard to find a place, and rents are insane. Then there is the threat of eviction. As you’re reading this, people across Dublin are fighting to stay in their homes. They have nowhere to go despite many vacant buildings across town. Displace: The Battle for Dublin captures Dublin as a city that is turning into a commodity. There is no place for community, just consumers. Urban ruins, like the Iveagh Market, remind us of a time

This year’s iteration of the Dublin International Film Festival has featured many on screen depictions of arduous journeys. Be it Ciaran Hinds trekking across Ulster in a horse drawn milk float in The Three Urns, endurance runners surmounting the eponymous 298km mountain race in documentary The Four Trails, or Colin Farrell and Emma Fogarty running the Dublin Marathon in The Slightest Touch. And here, the titular 500 Miles refers to the distance between Sheffield and Dingle,

William Shakespeare. A man that needs no introduction, whose plays find their way into almost every aspect of our lives, and his undeniable impact on storytelling and ch aracter development can still be found in many mediums today, proving that the themes he explored are still as relevant as they ever were. This is certainly the case for Peter Lavery’s 2026 film “All That Glitters” , which uses The Bard and his work as the overarching focal point. The story centres on Ryan, a

The latest film from visionary Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi whose previous films include Hukkle (2002) , Taxidermia (2006) and His Master’s Voice (2018) , Hen follows the life of an ostracised chicken who escapes from the poultry farm and ventures into unfamiliar territory.  We witness the nameless hen’s perilous journey into the world we know while she fights to survive, combating the elements and her own personal quest for motherhood. The chicken struggles to take con

At a time when Irish cinema faces challenges in reaching audiences abroad, the International Distribution Event offered a timely and inspiring exploration into the realities of getting local stories seen on the global stage. Hosted by Laura McNicholas (producer of “Spilt Milk”), the discussion brought together international distributors, sales agents, and festival programmers such as Mihai Chirilov, artistic director of the Transylvania International Film Festival, and Alen M

Orphan, original title: “Àrva” (2025, László Nemes) Budapest, 1957. Since the end of World War II, Hungary has been under a Communist regime, the Hungarian People’s Republic, subordinate to the USSR. In the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, those who took part in the rebellion against the regime in Budapest are now being persecuted. Andor Hirsch is a twelve-year-old boy. He spent the first years of his life in an orphanage while his father was sent to a concentration

Cinema is special for many reasons. It offers a shelter from the outside world, our everyday lives. Every film can feel like an escape. But only a special few films make us feel, fall and find freedom. Maspalomas is one of those films.     On Sunday, the 22nd of February, I hosted a Q&A at the Dublin International Film Festival, where I spoke to director duo Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi Galdos about their heartbreaking queer film, Maspalomas.      Goenaga and Galdos a

Emerging filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman follows up his acclaimed feature film debut A Love Song (2022) with his poignant and life-affirming second film in Rebuilding. Set in the aftermath of a catastrophic wildfire that consumes his 200-acre ranch and all his possessions, Dusty (Josh O’Conner) is forced to relocate with what he has left to a community support camp in a refurbished mobile home. Dusty must confront his relationships with those around him including his ex-wife,

At the end of his tenure Mariano De Santis, an imaginary President of Italy, confronts the moral and political legacy of his career. A meticulous man of law, Mariano must decide whether to finally sign a law that has been a decades-long controversy: the law of euthanasia.      La Grazia (“Grace”) premiered at 2025 Venice Film Festival. It’s Paolo Sorrentino’s 11th feature film and 7th collaboration with actor Tony Servillo who was awarded the Coppa Volpi at Venice for this r

Marianne Faithfull was a singer, songwriter, grammy nominee, actress and a teacher at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Was she a woman of exceptional talents or did she assume the roles naturally afforded someone who dated a Rolling Stone during the height of their fame? One thing for sure is she lived an extraordinary life; and this is no ordinary documentary. Or is it a biopic? An interview? A live performance? It evades labels, shapeshifting between forms as

When you first think of Don Bluth, your mind often goes to the vibrant colours and imaginative stories that defined childhood for many millennials growing up. But most people probably never think about Don Bluth the person. Who exactly was he? What were his thoughts and opinions on the animation industry at the time? And where is he now? Well these very questions are finally answered through the 2025 documentary “Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There”, directed by David LaMattina an

The sun is beating down on the concrete of an unnamed city. Its glaring heat condemns all life to a nocturnal rhythm that sets the scene for Jaqueline Zünd’s contemplative feature debut, Don’t Let The Sun (2025). Its narrative casts a lingering glance at the social cost of the climate crisis and dives into a world where people have withdrawn from their environment and from each other. While words have become sparse, ambient sound is a constant companion that guides us throug

The name of the movie “Gavagai” comes from a well-known thought experiment from philosopher W.V.O. Quine about the inability to translate a certain sentence and word perfectly. A correct point of entry into the newest movie by Ulrich Kohler, which focuses on the fields between languages, cultures, and intentions. In this co-production between Germany and France, Kohler turns a film-within-a-film into a tale of cross-cultural romance and much more.  The plot is set in two diff

Overview of documentary film Landmarks (dir. Lucrecia Martel), featured at DIFF 2026.