Cork International Film Festival: Five highlights for Thursday

From Disco Pigs to The Innocents, there's something for everyone on show tonight.

The Dance, left, and Disco Pigs, right, are among today's offerings at the Cork International Film Fest.

Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades) 

Everyman, 5.30pm 

This black and white French drama is a modern love story set in and around the residential towers known as ‘Les Olympiades’. Here Emilie (Lucie Zhang) meets Camille (Makita Samba), who is attracted to Nora (Noémie Merlant), who crosses paths with Amber (Jehnny Beth). The story offers a contemporary twist on French New Wave cinema as the characters redefine what love means today. In partnership with the French Embassy in Ireland. 

The Innocents 

Gate Cinema, 8.15pm 

This wonderful, slow-paced Scandinavian horror thriller is set during a bright Nordic summer. Ida and her older sister Anna move to a new home. Ida wants to have some fun and make new friends while paying no attention to her autistic sister. But it turns out that not all the kids in the neighbourhood are good, and they also have some scary supernatural powers… 

The Fam (La Mif) 

Gate Cinema, 7.45pm 

Seven girls living together in a residential home for at-risk teenagers form a bond and become a family. The home’s director, Lora, is a supporting figure in all their lives, despite her own personal issues. An incident between a resident and staff provides the centrifugal force around which Fred Baillif’s frank, upfront film rotates. A deserving winner of the Grand Prix Generation 14+ Award at Berlin.

The Dance 

Everyman, 8.30pm 

Acclaimed Cork documentary-maker Pat Collins focused his cameras on the equally renowned Kery-based choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan as he worked on MÁM, a show that involved 12 dancers, concertina player Cormac Begley and an orchestral collective.

Disco Pigs 

Gate Cinema, 8.45pm 

This was a breakout performance from Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy as Pig and Runt, two inseparable friends in their kingdom of ‘Pork City’. The first feature from Irish director Kirsten Sheridan, written by Enda Walsh (adapted from his own successful stage play), Disco Pigs still retains the power it had when it screened as the Festival’s Opening Gala 20 years ago in 2001.