The management of Cork Film Festival is gearing up for its 60th anniversary in 2016, engaging with new partners and hopeful of securing a title sponsor, despite incurring extensive financial losses last year.

As Culture Night kicks off in 900 venues around the country, Alan O’Riordan selects some of the best free offerings in Dublin, Cork and other parts of Munster

IT could be argued that the spectre of Dick Rowe hangs over every arts programmer. Rowe famously rejected The Beatles in 1961; for the programmer, especially the short film programmer who has to sift through thousands of shorts each year, how can we safeguard against such calamitous decision making? Truth is, we can’t.