Millstreet fight documentary to premiere at Cork International Film Festival
Sporting heroes: Steve Collins rocks Chris Eubank when winning his world super middleweight title fight against Chris Eubank in Millstreet, Co Cork, in 1995. Picture: Dan Linehan, Irish Examiner.
A host of premieres at Cork International Film Festival will have people fighting to get their hands on tickets.
Celebrating its world premiere at the 68th annual festival is One Night in Millstreet, a documentary on a historic Irish sporting event.
The highly anticipated film will go back to St Patrick's weekend in 1995 when boxing legend Chris Eubank travelled to Cork to take on an Irishman.
Hungry challenger Steve Collins fought the Super Middleweight Champion in the Green Glens Arena in a fight still talked about to this day.
The film relives the world championship boxing match and marks the trajectory of the two fighters.
Directed by two-time Best Sports Documentary IFTA winner Andrew Gallimore, the premiere on November 11 will be attended by the filmmakers and special guests.
The opening gala of the festival, which runs from November 9-26, will be Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things.
Starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Defoe, Poor Things is already generating Oscar buzz having won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
This latest offering from Lanthimos is the latest in a string of critically acclaimed films including The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite - which also starred Stone.
Poor Things is produced by Irish company, Element Pictures, who have said that it is a real honour to have their film open the film festival.
"We are so proud of this film and of how it has been received by audiences and around the world so far," said Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures.
"To screen the film at the longest-running film festival in Ireland with Poor Things is another prestigious step in the journey of this very special film."
Oscar-winning director Lanthimos is no stranger to Ireland having worked with Irish actors such as Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan while The Lobster was filmed in Dublin and locations around Kerry.
Poor Things tells the tale of Bella Baxter, a woman brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist who then hides her away from the world. Bella then runs away with a debauched lawyer on a whirlwind trip across the world.
Festival Director and CEO of Cork International Film Festival, Fiona Clarke, said she is thrilled to be able to open the festival with "one of the most talked about films of 2023".
"This is a phenomenal coup for the Festival and firmly maintains our reputation as the leading film festival in Ireland," she said.
"We can’t wait to share more exciting, high-profile titles with our audiences when we launch our full programme on Wednesday, October 11."
Another premiere announced is Brave The Dark which tells the true story of a 1980s teacher who is drawn into the mysterious past of one of his students.
Directed by Damian Harris, the film stars his brothers Jared and Jamie Harris with all three set to attend the international premiere. They are the sons of renowned actor Richard Harris.
The family have strong connections with Cork and recently gifted the Richard Harris Archive to University College Cork.
This year's festival will screen over 200 films with events held across Cork city and county. Tickets for the three premieres announced on Thursday will go on sale at 10am on Friday, October 6.
