FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, winner of our 2019 Director’s Choice Feature. Left to right: Production Designer Toma McCullim, Director Carmel Winters, Actor Hazel Doupe and Actor Dara Devaney

Dawn Morrissey, Dara Devaney, Hazel Doupe, Toma McCullim, Carmel Winters and Siobhan Fanning

Dawn Morrissey, Dara Devaney, Toma McCullim, Tom Vaughan Lawlor, Carmel Winters, Jane Doolan, Stephen Burke, Hazel Doupe, Liam O Mochain and Siobhan Fanning

Actor Hazel Doupe, FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY

Liam O Mochain, Carmel Winters, Hazel Doupe and Dara Devaney

The MAZE crew: Actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Producer Jane Doolan and Director Stephen Burke

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Directors Stephen Burke (MAZE), Carmel Winters (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY) and Liam O’Mochain (LOST AND FOUND)

Dawn Morrissey, Siobhan Fanning and Director Liam O Mochain (LOST AND FOUND)

Actors Dara Devaney (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY), Hazel Doupe (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY) and Tom Vaughan Lawlor (MAZE)

Director Carmel Winters (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY)

Actor Dara Devaney (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY)

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Dara Devaney, Hazel Doupe, Carmel Winters and Toma McCullim

Q&A following our Saturday night screening of MAZE.

Actors Tom Vaughan Lawlor (MAZE) and Dara Devaney (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY)

Production Designer Toma McCullim (FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY)

*We took a break from our annual festival in 2019 in order to fundraise and plan for a bumper 20th anniversary festival in March 2020. If you would like more information on how your business or organization can be involved, please drop us a line at info@irishfilmfestival.com.

2019 SCREENINGS

FEATURES

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY
2018/Ireland (101 minutes)
Director: Carmel Winters

From the producers of ONCE and SING STREET, FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY is a powerful and timely story of a girl's fight for freedom and belonging.

Teenage Irish Traveller Frances (Hazel Doupe) lost her mother in a fight. The same fight which led to her father (Dara Devaney) being locked up in jail for the last ten years. Frances has never forgiven the police sergeant who she feels is responsible for this. She’s got fighting in her blood, just like her idol Muhammad Ali inspiring her to be the Greatest.

When her father gets out of jail, Frances is starry-eyed. Together they can take on the world. But her father doesn’t turn out to be the hero she remembers. Required to keep the peace due to the conditions of his parole, he’s forced to endure humiliation from the police sergeant (Aidan O’Hare), much to Frances’ horror. And to make up for lost time, he is determined to make a man of his son and an obedient wife of his daughter.

Frances never wanted to clash with her beloved father, but when he forces her to give up her dream of boxing and behave like a “lady”, she is left with no choice. Cast out by the world and her family alike, Frances must fight even for the right to fight. Some people say it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. But Frances knows that losing is not an option? This is a fight she has been training for all her life. And she knows, the only way she can end this war is to win it.

MAZE
2017/Ireland (92 min)
Director: Stephen Burke

Maze is based on the true story of the 1983 mass breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from the HMP Maze high-security prison. As Larry Marley, the chief architect of the escape, schemes his way towards this feat, he meets prison warden, Gordon Close.

Initially they are confirmed enemies, born of opposite sides of Northern Ireland's political divide, but when Larry realizes that Gordon may be useful for his escape, a slow seduction begins. What follows is an intense and intriguing drama during which an unlikely relationship is forged between two adversaries.

LOST AND FOUND
2018/Ireland (96 minutes)
Director: Liam O Mochain

LOST AND FOUND is a feature film with 7 interconnecting stories set in and around a Lost and Found office of an Irish train station. All segments are inspired by true stories, share a theme of something lost or found and characters that come in and out of each other’s lives.

SHORTS

LATE AFTERNOON
2017/Ireland (10 minutes)
Director: Louise Bagnall

Emily is an elderly woman who lives between two states, the past and the present. She journeys into an inner world, reliving moments from her life and searching for a connection within her fragmented memories.

2019 Films

2019 SCREENINGS

FEATURES

SHORTS