Cork Film Festival: Bringing the world to Leeside’s silver screens

As the post-Jazz haze dissipates around Cork city, giving way to an autumn and winter full of cultural events, the buzz and anticipation grows for another of the city’s annual touchstones, as 2023 brings us the 68th annual instalment of the Cork International Film Festival.

In previous years, as longtime Downtown readers are no doubt sick of recalling, the conversation has been centred on both enduring and moving past the pandemic era, and imagining how things might change for the cinema experience - and for one, this year, the city centre is down its only remaining mainstream cinema, with the former Gate on North Main Street currently shut for an overhaul and the arrival of new management.

In response, the festival has worked with partners like The Everyman and the Triskel to extend its programme to two weeks, with initiatives like Super Cine Saturday seeing selected films from the lineup being screened at venues all over the county. Meanwhile, big-hitter presentations like Emma Stone-starring gala opener ‘Poor Things’ and local-interest documentary ‘One Night in Millstreet’ have generated considerable interest among the city’s film-going populace.

“I must say the response has been great,” says programming director Anna Kopecka. “Really positive from the audience perspective, but also our festival partners and friends, including our board, who have always been presented our programme first, and so are always our first audience. I think it's obvious that we have some really great hits - we can see already from the sales at this stage that the opening gala for Poor Things is selling really well, and that just confirms that people have great faith in the Cork Film Festival to provide something that will be interesting.

“Especially if there is a little bit of an Irish presence, like Paul Mescal in ‘All of Us Strangers’, and ‘Poor Things’, produced by an Irish production company [Element Pictures], we've been working with them for years now, so we're happy to be able to show this. And then, for obvious reasons, anything connected to Cork is selling the best. People are always looking for things that are connected to the city.”

The lineup, as ever, is an eclectic selection of Irish and international drama, comedy, documentary, horror and family-friendly fare, backed up by strands of short-film programming including the IFI’s retrospective on Leeside film-maker Flora Kerrigan, industry events, experiential happenings like screening/dinner packages, and even a ‘guilty pleasures’ offering, including Jackie Chan-starring action-comedy ‘Police Story 3: Super Cop’.

The festival’s team, from board members to volunteers, all muck in on looking through thousands of films in the months leading up to the festival’s announcements, both submitted by the wider public, and acquired from all manner of distributors and publishers.

“We have a group of dedicated reviewers that watch all the films, and give their notes, depending on what type of programming they do - so [our mutual colleague] Don O'Mahony is involved in shorts, he starts early Spring, and he has to go through 3000, usually closer to 4000 shorts.

“Of course, we are following the Irish productions, so we have this spreadsheet that has all the titles that are in production, filmmakers and producers who we're already following because of course, some films take some time to be finished. There's a lot of preparation, and the most amount of watching and selecting happens in summertime, I would say from May, from Cannes Film Festival onward, until the deadline. That's a massive amount of work.”

The festival also maintains a year-round presence in communities, such as schools-focused programming strands like Intinn (mental health) and Green Screen (environmentalism), and an online screening programme via Cork City Libraries.

These initiatives join a year-round effort that extend beyond curation and review, and into the maintenance of relationships with venues, funders, and other local stakeholders - a complex network of partnerships and collaborations whose maintenance and furthering constitute a large part of the festival’s long-term outlook.

“Venues are the most important, because if you don't have a place where you can show the films, then it makes no sense. [Over covid] we had to learn how to do it online, but we also learned people are very happy and keen on coming back to the physical screenings. We are thankful for all our traditional partners. We are opening in the Opera House which is an exciting event, and then we have a lot of things in the Everyman, which is such a beautiful venue. The only thing that we have, is that we have to bring our own equipment into the venue. We are working with Triskel, which is a beautiful venue that has a great programme, even during the year, so we are very happy to be working with them.

“Obviously, the Gate Cinema has been the main venue for the festival for many years, and I think anybody who has been there recently knows that it needed renovation and there has been some leaks in the roof, like it has to be done, if you want to keep going. We are not happy that it's being done during our festival but sometimes you don't have any options. We will miss the cinema, we are looking forward to being back next year, with a more comfortable experience for our audience.”

With tickets moving at a brisk pace, and said anticipation building steadily ahead of the festival’s gala opening, Kopecka is hopeful that the festival will provide an accessible and open point of interaction with the film medium for the city’s public, especially as the events put shape on another year of hard work from countless people.

“I think people don't realise how much effort has to go into creating a film festival, starting really early in the year. It was not very easy to do everything, but the team is so great, including director Fiona Clark, but all the volunteers, all the interns - we are really, really happy and proud that we are able to bring the festival to Cork, and really hope that people will find something that they will like and enjoy, and that they will join us.

“There are so many easy ways into the festival, even if you've never been to a film festival, never seen any films with subtitles, it is a great way to do that, including a great programme for families. So we are really hoping that everybody will join us, and we have so many things related to Cork, so many films and filmmakers, that I'm sure that people will find something that sparks their interest - and we are very much looking forward to that, across eighteen days.”

Cork International Film Festival runs from Thursday November 9 - Sunday November 26, at venues all over Cork City and county. For more info and tickets, visit corkfilmfest.org.

Family-Friendly Shorts

Saturday November 11, 1pm; The Everyman

Cork’s own Siobhán McSweeney and U2’s Bono took part in the making of some these films - and they’re not even the most unusual characters that you will meet. There are curious table fans, culinary cats, liquid cats, sleepy monkeys, friendly stars and adventurous spiders!

Robot Dreams

Sunday November 12, 3pm; The Everyman - and cinemas around Cork county; Saturday November 25, 2.30pm

1980s New York. Dog lives in an apartment in Manhattan, and decides to put an end to being alone by building himself a robot companion. Dog and Robot quickly become the best of friends, relishing their time together exploring the Big City, until an incident at the beach forces them apart. Will they ever meet again?

Close Shave

Thursday November 16, 6pm; The Everyman

When Finbarr finds out his wife is coming to visit him in hospital after a serious operation, he devises a courageous and off-the-wall plan to look his best for her. Followed by a Q&A with UCC’s Puttnam Scholars and festival patron David Puttnam.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds

Saturday November 18, 3pm; The Everyman

Adventure and new friends await two sisters in this beautiful take on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by French director Benoit Chieux. Will they meet the terrible magician Sirocco who controls the winds? Will they find their way back before Agnes wakes up from her afternoon nap?

Deep Sea

Sunday November 26, 2.30pm; Triskel Christchurch

A young girl, Shenxiu, awakes after being caught in a storm at sea, and is taken under the wing of a strange creature called the Hyjinx, who guides her in a quest for the Eye of the Deep Sea. On the way she becomes a passenger on a ship which houses a restaurant under the ocean, and its captain and chef, the eccentric Nanhe.

Five highlights of Cork Film Festival

Poor Things

Thursday November 9, 7.30pm; Cork Opera House

An incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (an outstanding and hilarious performance by Emma Stone), a sexually innocent young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (whom she calls “God”), played by Willem Dafoe.

One Night in Millstreet

Saturday November 11, 8.30pm; The Everyman

Documentary not only relives the titanic contest that took place in Millstreet’s Green Glens Arena on St Patrick’s Weekend of 1995, but also marks the trajectory of the two competitors. The preening, self-regarding, and mentally formidable Super Middleweight Champion, Chris Eubank, and the hungry challenger from Cabra, Steve Collins.

IFI Cork on Camera: Flora Kerrigan

Sunday November 12, 3.30; Triskel Christchurch

Amateur filmmaker Flora Kerrigan was an active member of the Cork Cine Club during the late 1950s and 1960s, producing numerous Super8 short films ranging from animation to documentary. Kerrigan’s films were recognised internationally and she won awards at prestigious amateur film competitions like ‘Ten Best’.

All of Us Strangers

Sunday November 19, 8.30pm; The Everyman

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal star in (CIFF Alumnus) Andrew Haigh’s superb and unsettling adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s ‘Strangers’ Adam (Scott), a screenwriter living in London, strikes up an acquaintance with neighbour Harry (Mescal), which becomes something more intimate. Meanwhile, whilst revisiting his old family home, he discovers something unusual and beautiful, which keeps him returning.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Friday November 24, 8pm; Triskel Christchurch

Ella Glendining was born without hip joints and shortened femurs, a very rare set of physical conditions. Having grown up loving her body, but knowing nobody with a similar one, Ella ventures out beyond her East Anglian home to try and find someone that she can physically relate to.