Cork International Film Festival to welcome back in-venue audiences in November
Ali & Ava is the opening film of the Cork International Film Festival.
The Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) is welcoming audiences and filmmakers to Cork once more with the news that it will offer a mixture of in-person and online events this year.
Now in its 66th year, CIFF will run for 17 days in November with a blended in-cinema and online festival. Last year it offered an online-only programme due to the pandemic.
Screenings and events will take place in The Gate Cinemas (Cork City, Midleton and Mallow), The Everyman and Triskel from November 5 to 12. It will be followed by a nine-day digital programme, running on their website until November 21. The digital offering consists of three programmes of 12 screenings of features, documentaries and shorts. Each will be available online for 72 hours.
Fiona Clarke, the festival's director, says this will be the most accessible festival yet.
"Our programme offers film fans both locally and nationally the chance to see acclaimed films alongside new discoveries, whether in venues (with safety and ease our priority) or from the comfort of home," she says.
"We look forward to sharing our carefully curated selection of Irish and international premieres, presented on the big screen again and, following the enormous success of our digital festival in 2020, are delighted to offer an extensive programme of features and shorts online. Our festival will be more accessible than ever before, allowing greater opportunities for everyone to discover film and reimagine the world."
The festival's opening gala will feature Ali & Ava from acclaimed director Clio Barnard, which follows friendly, outgoing landlord Ali and Ava, an Irish-born single mum of five, who form a close bond through their deep love of music.
The festival has commissioned Crashers, a bespoke artwork from Cork-based digital media artist Elinor O’Donovan, which will be publicly exhibited as part of CIFF’s Trail of Discovery and is funded by the Arts Council through their Commissions Award 2021.
This year, CIFF celebrates female directors and filmgoers are invited to discover inspiring works by filmmakers that changed cinematic language and rewrote the history of film.
“This year, we pay particular attention to bold and uncompromising Irish and international female directors, paying tribute to their fantastic work that changed the history of cinema and keeps challenging our understanding of what cinema is," says Anna Kopecká, director of programming.
"We open our festival with a warm yet realistic love story from acclaimed British director Clio Barnard and we are proud to present our retrospective programme Female Visions, giving audiences a unique opportunity to re/discover fiction and documentary movies by visionary female filmmakers both on the big screen and online.”
The full programme will be announced on Thursday, October 14 and tickets will be available through corkfilmfest.org and via the myCIFF App from that date.
