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Irish Film & Television UK (IFTUK) presents the Irish Film Festival, London 2025, returning to the capital from 12–16 November for five days of cinematic discovery: from bold new voices redefining Irish identity to powerful films confronting the country’s past.
Screenings will take place at Vue West End, Vue Piccadilly and the ICA, screenings followed by filmmaker Q&As, special events and discussions.
Spanning feature films, documentaries and shorts, this year’s line-up includes Trad, a coming-of-age drama set to the rhythm of Ireland’s musical heart; Saipan, a retelling of the explosive fallout between manager Mick McCarthy and captain Roy Keane before the 2002 World Cup; Testimony, charting the fight for justice for survivors of the Magdalene laundries and Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland; and In the Opinion of the Censor, a sideways look at how Irish censors cut and banned thousands of films.
There will also be an opportunity to see two legendary actors at work at different points in their career: Andrew Scott’s first-ever film role in Korea and the latest film from Oscar winner, Brenda Fricker, The Swallow.
Festival Director Michael Hayden comments
“In another strong year for Irish film, the Irish Film Festival London recognises how daring the country’s filmmakers are in taking on serious and pertinent topics of debate. There is work here that deals with national identity, the legacy of abuse and conflict, feminism and gender politics, censorship, the naivety of youth, the pain of aging, generational differences and battles for justice.
There’s also work that joyously celebrates music, art, film and football, this stuff of life that matters to so many of us, these topics addressed with humour, wit and creative invention.
The programme is intended as a powerful and celebratory snapshot of where Irish cinema is right now, and I look forward to welcoming the people behind these films to London in November and to sharing their work with audiences.”
The festival opens with Lance Daly’s Trad, a joyous and heartfelt road movie celebrating Ireland’s musical soul and the restless spirit of youth. The acclaimed director of Kisses and Black 47, brings his trademark warmth and cinematic flair to this story of creativity and freedom, which won the Audience Award at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh. The film follows Shóna (Megan Nic Fhionnghaile), a gifted teenage fiddle player from Donegal who is growing disillusioned with both the confines of the traditional music she plays and the restrictions imposed by her oppressive mother. When she encounters an anarchic troupe of travelling musicians, Shóna, with her young brother Mickey in tow, sets out on a journey of self-discovery through Ireland’s towns and counties.
Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén’s Celtic Utopia (Útóipe Cheilteach) shines a light on a new wave of acclaimed Irish folk musicians who take inspiration from the sounds, culture and oppression of the country’s history while making music that looks to a brighter future. Featuring performances from The Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Jinx Lennon and more, Celtic Utopia is a glorious celebration of Irish music at a significant moment in its evolution.
The most talked about Irish film of the year, Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa’s Saipan revisits Ireland’s infamous sporting controversy: the explosive fallout between manager Mick McCarthy and captain Roy Keane during preparations for the 2002 World Cup. Long debated in pubs and living rooms across the country, the incident remains one of the most divisive moments in Irish soccer history. With Steve Coogan as McCarthy and Éanna Hardwicke as Keane, the acclaimed directors recreate the events with daring precision, offering a gripping and ingenious portrayal of loyalty, pride and national identity.
Following her acclaimed documentary Mrs Robinson, which opened last year’s festival, Aoife Kelleher returns with Testimony, a feature documentary that tells a story of an extraordinary group of women, supported by the activist organisation Justice for Magdalenes, whose battle to hold the Irish government accountable for the abuses of the Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Home institutions and forced family separation, takes them all the way to the United Nations. More than 10,000 women and girls became slave labour at these institutions run by the Catholic Church between 1922 and 1996, incarcerated and shunned by Irish society.
Andrew Gallimore (One Night in Millstreet) returns to the Irish Film Festival London with In the Opinion of the Censor. At the birth of the Republic, the Censorship of Films Act 1923 required all films shown in Ireland to be reviewed by the Censor. Strongly influenced by the Church and government, successive censors banned over 2,500 films and cut a further 11,000, often sparking national debate. Featuring John Kelleher, Ireland’s last Film Censor alongside historians and filmmakers, Gallimore’s documentary charts how censorship mirrored Ireland’s shifting cultural and political values, with clips from Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Graduate, Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ and Ulysses.
Set on a Dublin housing estate in the summer of 1998, Claire Frances Byrne’s debut feature Ready or Not follows three teenage friends whose curiosity about love, romance and growing up leads to dark and life changing consequences. Winner of awards at the Irish Film Festival London for her short films Amazing Grace (2021) and Waiting Day (2023), Byrne’s vivid and evocative feature debut balances uncomfortable truths with honesty, humour and compassion.
In Donncha Gilmore’s debut feature Girls & Boys sparks fly and old wounds resurface when Trinity students Charli, a bohemian trans filmmaker, and Jace, an introverted rugby player, meet at a Halloween party in Dublin. When the party is shut down by the Gardaí, the two wander through Dublin’s glimmering streets, sharing their hopes and dreams, until a startling truth from their pasts forces them to confront their buried feelings and the identities they've outgrown.
Eamonn Murphy’s Solitary is an absorbing and humane character study set on the edge of rural Ireland, where widowed cattle farmer Brendan leads a quiet, well-liked life of pints, gossip and looking out for others, until an incident of brutal violence visits his community, and heightens his own isolation. Herbert’s remarkably nuanced performance is the heart of Eamonn Murphy’s bold debut feature, informed by the lonely reality many face in rural Ireland.
José Miguel Jiménez’s Amanda is an intimate documentary portrait of Irish artist Amanda Cullen as she prepares for a retrospective of her work. Her painting is instinctive, expressive and free-flowing, shaped by years of creating in isolation after suffering abuse and institutional oppression. Displaying her work in galleries, Amanda reveals her harrowing life story, and how her art and creativity are wrapped up with the healing process and her fight for justice.
Damian McCann’s Aontas opens in the aftermath of a robbery gone wrong in a small Co Antrim village, where flashing lights and bloodied bodies hint at secrets yet to unravel. Told through fragmented chapters, this inventive Irish-language noir pieces together a story of betrayal, family ties and corruption with sharp wit and a superb predominantly female ensemble cast.
Andrew Scott made his debut film appearance in Cathal Black’s Korea (1995). A beautifully rendered adaptation of a story by John McGahern, the film follows Eamon, a teenager at a crossroads in his life. His obligation to his eel fisherman father is dwindling amidst tensions over fishing rights with his neighbour, and a forbidden love with his daughter. Recently restored as part of the Irish Film Institute’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland, Korea offers an early glimpse of Scott’s striking screen presence and the sensitivity that would later define his career.
Bringing the festival to a contemplative close is Tadhg O’Sullivan’s The Swallow starring Brenda Fricker, Ireland’s first female Academy Award winner for My Left Foot (1989). A haunting and visually striking meditation on memory, loss and art, the film is set on a desolate stretch of the County Clare coast, where an unnamed woman (Brenda Fricker) lives surrounded by the gathered relics of a life devoted to creativity. As she writes a letter to an anonymous correspondent, her reflections become a poetic exploration of solitude, art and time, with Fricker’s luminous performance anchoring this powerful, elegiac closing to the festival.
Dedicated to showcasing emerging talent, the festival will also present two New Irish Shorts programmes at the ICA. Programme 1 features films exploring recollection, loss and imagination, while Programme 2 brings together works reflecting on family, identity and connection.