'It brings the city alive': Memories of Cork Film Festival on its 70th anniversary

As Cork International Film Festival celebrates its 70th year, filmmakers and actors reflect on their experiences at the country's oldest film festival

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025 - 01:00

Ed Guiney

Co-CEO, Element Pictures

A very special memory is when Lenny Abrahamson’s first short, 3 Joes, won the prize for Best European Short in 1991 — it was really our first proper production and lots of us who worked on that film are still working together now.

It was an amazing night. Lenny was studying in America and I remember calling him from the stage as the prize was awarded. He was very sad not to be there.

Element Pictures’ Poor Things opened the 68th festival in 2023 at Cork Opera House.
Element Pictures will present two films in premiere at the 70th edition: My Father’s Shadow (November 9) and Pillion (November 13).
Guiney will participate in an ‘In Conversation’ at 11.45am on November 9 at the Triskel.

The Evening Echo muses on Cork's chances of an international film festival in an 1955 article.

Carmel Winters

Filmmaker and playwright

I’ll never forget when Float Like A Butterfly opened CIFF.

The atmosphere was electric as an almighty tribe of tribes — settled and Traveller, artists and farmers, factory workers and festival patrons — poured into the Everyman and became one big brave and beautiful family for the screening.

Last year’s world premiere of The Art of Loss at CIFF was a very different affair.

It was the same day as my beloved step-grandson’s funeral and I wondered how I could do both — or if I should.

But travelling from the funeral church in Bantry to Triskel church was truly a meaningful and magical pilgrimage.

The audience joined me wholeheartedly in showing up to loss and loving each other through it. I love CIFF audiences. If you open your heart, they open theirs right back.

Winters presented her film The Art of Loss at the 2024 festival.

Hilary Rose

Actress, writer, and podcaster

The Cork International Film Festival has such a special place in my heart.

It’s always such a celebration of creativity and community, and there’s nothing quite like sharing those moments with audiences in my hometown.

The festival is so important for Cork culturally — it brings the city alive every year with stories, imagination, and that unique Cork energy that makes it all feel so special. I always feel so proud to be part of it.

Rose is a CIFF family ambassador.

Alisha Weir

Actress and singer

I had an incredible time at the Cork Film Festival.

The atmosphere and the buzz around for all the films taking part was amazing.

I remember the audience being so excited to see Matilda, and all my family and friends attended.

We had a wonderful weekend.

Wishing the Cork Film Festival all the best and congratulations on celebrating 70 years.

Weir presented the premiere of Matilda at the festival in 2022.

Rachel Allen

Chef and cookery writer

I’m really excited about the Cork International Film Festival this year, and particularly thrilled for the films that are happening in the culinary cinema strand. It’s just going to be brilliant.

At each of these, there are four culinary movies being shown, and after each of them, there will be a meal relevant to the film itself, which makes it really interesting.

And actually at one of them, on Sunday, November 9, at The Arc Cinema, 'Mam', the chef from Texas, is going to be coming over himself for the event, which is really exciting, along with an event at the Palestinian restaurant Izz Café.

I’m honoured to be an ambassador for the culinary cinema strand, and very excited about it.

Allen is a CIFF culinary ambassador.

Rank Film Company, then a post-war powerhouse in Britain's domestic cinema landscape, sent some of its stars to Cork for its first-ever international film festival

Frank Berry

Filmmaker and screenwriter

All of my films have screened at the Cork International Film Festival and I have so many great memories over the years.

The Cork audiences are wonderful and the Q&As are always lively and memorable. It’s a hugely important and very special film festival.

Berry’s feature Aisha opened the 67th festival in 2022.

Social snaps from the first Cork Film Festival

Prasanna Puwanarajah

Filmmaker and actor

We loved being at CIFF with Ballywalter, as part of a wonderful festival journey in 2022 and 2023.

The audiences were busy, vocal, and warm, and the reception for the film was glorious.

Filmmaking can feel quite lonely sometimes — it was wonderful to come to such a homely place and share the film with so many people in Cork.

Thanks for having us.

Puwanarajah presented his film Ballywalter in premiere in 2022.

Brendan Canty

Filmmaker and photographer

My favourite memory of the Cork Film Festival was the premiere of our short film Christy in 2019.

We surprised the cast of our film by picking them up from The Kabin Studios in a pink humvee limousine.

Upon arrival at the Everyman, they jumped on the mic and launched into an impromptu gig right outside the venue, drawing a massive crowd.

People filmed it on their phones and it went viral. What a moment — I’ll never forget it.

Canty’s latest documentary, Gealtra, will premiere at the 70th festival on November 7 at the Everyman.

Dónal Gallagher

Manager and brother of Rory Gallagher

Having had the benefit of seeing Cork’s Film Festival evolve over time, being a youngster living on MacCurtain St, witnessing the colour (and black and white too), enthusiasm, and glamour the event brought, through to the present festival’s vision and vibrant 70th celebrations, the annual festival is a star of the international arts cinema calendar, an exciting institution that is deserving of everyone’s support.

Gallagher participated in a Q&A at the 2024 festival following the 50th anniversary screening of Rory Gallagher: Irish Tour ’74.

A preview of the first Cork International Film Festival, as part of Cork Tostal season

Joshua Oppenheimer

Filmmaker

Great cinema, like all great art, is a mirror.

It implicates us, it invites us to question ourselves and wonder what we are made of. Cork’s soulful audience (and loving staff) don’t seem to care about fashion and hype.

Instead, they come to the movies with such openness, eager to be challenged and transformed into better, wiser, more insightful souls.

Oppenheimer presented The End, starring Tilda Swinton, at the 2024 festival.

Sinéad O’Shea

Filmmaker

Last year’s Cork Film Festival was our first time sharing Blue Road — The Edna O’Brien Story with an Irish audience.

We had enjoyed a good world premiere at Toronto and our hope was to release the film in Irish cinemas a few months afterwards, so it was important to have a strong Irish premiere.

I don’t think we could have dreamt of a better screening. It was a huge audience — about 450 people — and it felt like everyone shared a very emotional experience.

Everything worked, our little jokes and all the moments that had so moved the editor Gretta Ohle and I in the edit.

Gretta had brought her parents and I brought my kids. We ended up winning the Best Irish [New] Feature Award, which was great, but I will always cherish the screening itself and how it emboldened us to go for a big Irish cinema release.

Blue Road — The Edna O’Brien Story was the winner of the Best New Irish Feature Award 2024, sponsored by the Irish Examiner.

A review, after the first edition of the festival, featuring stars and socialites alike up to no good

Benoît Sebatier

Filmmaker

In that old chapel turned into a cinema, when the film students [young programmers] presented Fotogenico, one of them was so moved that she couldn’t speak — her silence became one of the most eloquent, and certainly the most touching, moments.

It was all the more striking since the rest of our stay at Cork fest was so festive, warm, and exhilarating.