If you thought 2025 has been good for homegrown films so far, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
By Brian Bowe
With a healthy smattering of fresh Irish titles set to screen at the Cannes Film Festival this May, now’s a perfect time to look ahead to see what the summer (and beyond) has in store for fans of Irish film.
We’ve had plenty to choose from so far this year on the homefront across a range of genres. Irish-language horror, especially, seems to be having a moment. Spooky titles Fréwaka and An Taibhse, directed by Aislinn Clarke and John Farrelly, respectively, both enjoyed strong spring releases.
Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers, about a put-upon writer juggling caring duties for his elderly widowed mother (a stand-out Fionnula Flanagan), and Stephen Bradley’s Fran the Man, a feature-length film adaptation of the popular Irish football mockumentary series Fran, both released in April and delivered the goods on the comedy front. (Psst! Don’t be surprised if Four Mothers becomes a mainstay on RTE’s Mothers’ Day programming. It’s a charmer!)
While Bring Them Down, Christopher Andrews’ Ireland-set thriller starring Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan, received funding from MUBI and Screen Ireland, Amongst the Wolves, Irish writer-director Mark O’Connor’s Dublin gangland revenge flick, was made entirely independently. It’s a film worth seeking out — take it from the director himself, who took to Twitter on the film’s release to ask: “Are you going to support an independent Irish film that made it into cinemas this weekend and nearly took my soul from my body or sit at home and doom scroll?!!”
Looking ahead, what sticks out is Ireland’s presence at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with multi-Oscar-winning Irish powerhouse Element Pictures arriving with two titles — Pillion and My Father’s Shadow — and Galway-shot dramedy Learning to Breathe Under Water, selected for the prestigious Great 8 showcase — an initiative that has previously launched acclaimed titles such as Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, and Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap.
Pillion, financed by BBC Film and the BFI and starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, is based on the novel by Adam Mars-Jones. Being pitched as a “fun and filthy romance with heart,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, the film follows a directionless man who is swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive.
My Father’s Shadow, a UK-Irish-Nigerian co-production directed by Akinola Davies Jr., will make history as the first Nigerian film to be included in the festival’s Official Selection in its nearly 80-year history. Screening in the Un Certain Regard strand – a competition for debut and ascendant filmmakers – the film is set against the backdrop of the 1993 election crisis in Nigeria and tells the story of a father and his estranged sons as they navigate Lagos amid political unrest.
Directed by Rebekah Fortune and starring Rory Kinnear and Maria Bakalova, Irish-UK-Netherlands co-production Learning to Breathe Under Water follows eight-year-old Leo (newcomer Ezra Carlisle), who’s mourning the death of his mother and dealing with his emotionally erratic father. Cue spirited au pair Anya, who brings warmth, answers, and new-found hope to their lives. Yep, it sure sounds like it’s a couple of showstoppers away from a Mary Poppins reboot.
Bono is expected to make an appearance at Cannes for the premiere of his documentary Bono: Stories Of Surrender, a reimagining of his critically acclaimed one-man stage show, directed by Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik. The (usually) politically outspoken U2 rocker has faced severe criticism recently for not speaking out against the Palestinian genocide, so it will be curious to see if he faces any questions on the Croisette. Bono: Stories Of Surrender streams on Apple TV+ from 30th May.
Away from the French festival, the starry romance Four Letters Of Love, from filmmaker Polly Steele, arrives in cinemas this summer. Adapted from the Niall Williams novel and shot in Donegal and Antrim, the film stars Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, and Gabriel Byrne as parents of fated lovers played by Irish rising stars Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly. Having received its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival in Autumn to a warm reception, Irish cinema-goers can look forward to catching Four Letters Of Love in theatres 18th July.
Alessandra Celesia’s documentary The Flats is picking up a lot of steam ahead of its cinema release on 23rd May. Not only was it named winner of The George Morrison Feature Documentary Award at the IFTA Awards last February, it also took home Best Film at Copenhagen’s prestigious CPH: DOX Festival in March.
Interrogating Northern Ireland’s Troubles’ lasting impact on Belfast residents, The Flats is set in the New Lodge housing estate in North Belfast and focuses mainly on a single protagonist, Joe McNally, recreating childhood memories and collective traumas to confront residents’ unresolved wounds. Celesia, born in Italy and living between Paris and Belfast, explained her reasons for making the film:
“I arrived in the North for the first time just before the Good Friday Agreement and I said I would never make a film about the Troubles. It’s the past, it’s finished, and now we’re looking for something else. And I kept my promise until I found New Lodge, where it’s just so clear there is this whole generation traumatized by this thing that they never got over. For any war, this is exactly what happens. Once you start it, there will always be a group left frozen in that time, for their whole life.”
Another title finding success on the festival circuit earlier this year was Brian Durnin’s coming-of-age film Spilt Milk, which picked up the Glasgow Film Festival Audience Award. In his feature debut, Durnin takes us back to 1980s Dublin to tell a story of 11-year-old Bobby, who dreams of becoming a great detective like his TV hero Kojak. After setting up a private investigation enterprise with his best friend, the disappearance of his older brother sets them off on a quest that stumbles down a dark path. No release date has been given as yet, but expect to see Spilt Milk later this year.
The second half of 2025 promises to be an exciting time for Irish film fans. As more titles premiere and festival circuits continue to showcase the breadth of Irish filmmaking, it will be interesting to see how these efforts develop throughout the year.
