60 years of the Cork Film Festival

The Cork Film Festival is in its 60th year. Ahead of its launch next Friday, Marjorie Brennan pays tribute to the country’s longest-running film festival.

WHEN Berlin was only a baby, and long before Redford rode into Utah with Sundance, Cork gave Ireland its first film festival, this year celebrating its 60th outing.

Founded in 1956, it was originally part of An Tóstal, a cultural initiative to bring tourists to Ireland. It became a week-long festival held in May in 1957 and officially became the Cork Film Festival the following year. It was a groundbreaking enterprise for the times.