A roundup of this year’s star-studded Dublin International Film Festival
By Brian Bowe
From February 20th to March 2nd, the Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) presented a diverse lineup of eighty films, including ten Irish works that made their world premieres. The festival also featured fifty-five short films as part of its offerings. Ahead of the event, Festival Director Gráinne Humphreys promised cinema-goers “a superb line-up of international features and documentaries, a packed industry programme, and, as ever, a line-up of world premieres of new Irish work.”
It was always going to be hard to top last year’s programme — an edition which welcomed arthouse favourites like Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Close Your Eyes, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist — but what DIFF 2025 lacked in an abundance of buzzy film titles, it made up for in special guests and varied industry and public events.
Kicking off proceedings was Uberto Pasolini’s new take on The Odyssey, the handsomely made though quite turgid The Return. Its star, esteemed British actor Ralph Fiennes, was in attendance — a pleasant surprise considering he’s been a busy man this awards season, campaigning for last year’s papal potboiler, Conclave. Speaking to RTÉ, Fiennes opened up about his connection to Ireland: “I was here in my early teens – West Cork and Kilkenny,” he recalled, adding, “I was back [in 2006] and worked in the Gate Theatre in the wonderful Brian Friel play, Faith Healer … I always feel very happy to be back in Dublin.”
Hollywood royalty Jessica Lange and Ed Harris also stopped by, for the world premiere of a new adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night, directed by Jonathan Kent. The stars also received the festival’s highest honour, the Volta award, for their contributions to cinema, and each held insightful masterclasses to a packed house at The Complex, a venue which, over the last couple of years, has become the festival’s event hub for industry seminars and networking opportunities.
Other highlights from this year’s Masterclass series included public conversations with Pulitzer prize-winning New Yorker critic Justin Chang; fashion icon Twiggy, discussing her life as charted in Sadie Frost’s lively new documentary; and director Alexandre O. Philippe, whose latest film, Chain Reaction — winner of the Venice Classics Award at the Venice Film Festival 2024 — was also screening as part of the festival.
Of course, there were plenty of Irish stars in attendance, too. John Connors of Love/Hate fame premiered his new documentary Where the Road Meets the Sky. Centring on his grandmother Chrissy Donohue Ward, a Mincéir activist and poet, the film serves as an intimate reminder of the enduring strength embedded within Mincéir culture. Another film exploring familial histories, Park Avenue, starring BAFTA award-winning Irish actress Fiona Shaw, went down a treat with audiences. Set in New York, and drawing inspiration from screenwriter Dellal Allen’s relationship with her mother, the bittersweet drama follows Charlotte (Katherine Waterstone), who returns to her mother’s (Shaw) apartment, where she rediscovers the life she left behind. Shaw received high praise for her stunning and subtle performance, and was even on-hand for a Q&A after the screening.
Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon arrived for the premiere of Stephen Bradley’s football comedy Fran the Man, a screening which proved a triumphant crowd pleaser. An adaptation of the football mockumentary series Fran — which aired on Setanta Sports and TV3 from 2009-2011 — the feature stars Darragh Humphreys as Fran Costello, assistant manager of Irish football minnows St Peter’s Celtic, who must work undercover to save the sport from a match-fixing scandal. Fans of Irish comedy will get a kick out of Fran the Man; it’s a film jam-packed with familiar faces, from Après Match’s Risteard Cooper and Deirdre O’Kane to contemporary funny men Michael Fry and Peter McGann.
Another highlight of the festival was undoubtedly The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Dublin filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan. Having premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival last year and receiving a six-minute standing ovation no less, for DIFF to programme this was quite the coup. Billed as a psychological thriller, The Surfer follows an unnamed middle-aged man (Cage) as he returns to his hometown in coastal Western Australia with hope of buying a seafront property. Unfortunately, the locals have other ideas and subject our sad-sack hero to a series of hazing rituals. With the gritty look of a 70s exploitation flick and filled with the dark comic tones of some of Cage’s best performances, The Surfer has all the makings of a classic midnight movie. While the release date has yet to be announced, The Surfer is expected to hit cinemas later this year.
As is tradition, the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards were announced on the Festival’s final day. The biggest prize, for Best Film, went to Laura Carreira’s feature debut, the social-realist drama On Falling, a profoundly depressing film that depicts the human cost and humiliation of working at a “fulfilment centre” — i.e., Jeff Bezos’ comfort watch. Although well made and containing a wonderful performance from Joana Santos, On Falling is a hard film to swallow. I found it gruelling, which is perhaps a testament to how accurately the filmmaker portrays the misery of the gig economy. On a brighter note, Ross Whitaker’s Beat the Lotto, a fascinating documentary about a syndicate helmed by mathematician Stefan Klincewicz and their attempt to game the Lotto in 1992, was named Best Irish Film, while the three young stars of Claire Frances Byrne’s drama Ready or Not — Ruby Conway Dunne, Molly Byrne and Alicia Weafer — took home The Michael Dwyer Discovery Award.
Perhaps the most surprising event on this year’s programme, when it was announced, was one celebrating 25 years of the hit TV show Gilmore Girls. “Let’s be honest – it’s going to be a completely different audience than coming in to see the silent or Moroccan cinema,” Humphries told Screen Daily. “I thought, if I can get them to DIFF for Gilmore Girls, it’ll be two small steps to get them coming back. I also want to throw out the idea that if it’s long, slow, depressing, and in a foreign language, it’s somewhat more important than 45 minutes of joy.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a GG fan to the core, but charging punters full price to watch two episodes of a TV show on the big screen doesn’t sit too right with me; but hey! Who am I to judge, nostalgia makes fools of us all.
A hallmark event of DIFF is the Surprise Film, screening on the last day of the Festival. This slot is a fan favourite, and you can always be sure it will sell out. I remember back in 2016 when Jordan Peele’s Get Out — which, at that time, was largely unknown — thrilled DIFF audiences before becoming one of the most popular of the 21st century. This year, the slot went to James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island, fresh off its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival — funnily enough, The Glasgow Film Festival also picked the film for their Surprise slot several days later. Comedian Tim Key co-wrote the movie and stars in it as an eccentric millionaire who convinces his favourite musicians (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) to reunite for one last show on his remote island. It’s as quirky and charming as you could hope for, and Key, who readers will have recently spotted in Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi satire Mickey 17, is a reliably funny performer. Be sure to check The Ballad of Wallis Island out when it hits cinemas on May 30th.
