JULY 2025 AT THE IFI

This July, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) offers up a jam-packed programme of carefully curated, thought-provoking, and all-around entertaining film experiences. From highly-anticipated new releases and stunningly restored classics, to a host of incredible special events, including our month-long season dedicated to some incredible works from down under, Australian Dreams, the 33rd edition of the GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival, and much, much more!

And remember, film buffs nationwide can explore a host of incredible Irish and world cinema from the comfort of the couch on IFI@Home, anywhere in the Republic of Ireland!

The deadline for submission of Irish feature documentaries at this year’s IFI Documentary Festival is looming! Submission entry, guidelines and further information are available here, and the deadline for submitting is 18.00 on Friday, July 4th.

Tickets for new releases and special events are on sale from the IFI Box Office on (01) 6793477 and from www.ifi.ie, as per the IFI’s Weekly Schedule. Online rentals from IFI@Home are available at www.ifihome.ie.

ENDS.

For further information and high-res images, please contact Casey Hynes ([email protected]) at the IFI Press Office.

July Programme Highlights

IFI Seasons
Saturday 5th – Tuesday 29th
From July 5th to 29th, we bring Australia to our screens through the dedicated retrospective Australian Dreams, showcasing a unique lineup of films which chart cinema’s exploration of Australian identity and cultural representation at the close of the 20th century! Titles screening include Walkabout, considered one of the first films of the Australian New Wave; Wake in Fright, referred to by Nick Cave as “the best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence”, and by Martin Scorsese as “a deeply – and I mean deeply – unsettling and disturbing movie”; Peter Weir’s The Last Wave; Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career, and so much more!

Select titles from the season have been supported by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Tickets and full season programme are available on the IFI website; season bundles available in-person or by phone at IFI Box Office.

Festivals
Tuesday 29th – Monday, August 4th
This month, the GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival returns to the IFI with a stellar selection of queer films screening in-cinema from Tuesday 29th to Monday, August 4th. Some festival highlights include Three Japanese Love Stories, a programme which includes a rare screening of iconic documentary Shinjuku Boys accompanied by two contemporary Japanese shorts; 1998 hidden gem High Art, newly restored in 4K; and Scannáin Aiteach, a programme of shorts celebrating over twenty years of LGBTQIA films as Gaeilge. Tickets are available now on the GAZE website.

IFI Regulars
Everyday
This month’s Archive at Lunchtime programme, Against All Odds, presents two short films – Top of the Morning, a tourist-style film promoting Irish Sweepstakes, and Kieron J Walsh’s Bossanova Blues, screening for free at lunchtime every day in June.

Sunday 13th
The EAFFI Discoveries (East Asia Film Festival Ireland) strand returns this month with Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace, a luminous debut feature shot on 35mm and a delicate, atmospheric melodrama set in New York City. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Constance Tsang, hosted by film-maker Maríssa Aroy.

Tuesday 15th
Continuing the IFI Irish Focus strand, the IFI is delighted to present Iománaíocht Hollywood, which explores how Ireland, Irish people, and Gaelic games have been depicted in Hollywood films and in Irish cinema. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Seán Crosson, and a new edition of Crosson’s book Gaelic Games on Film will be available to purchase at a promotional price of €20.00 in the IFI Film Shop and in the foyer on the night.

Wednesday 16th
For this month’s The Bigger Picture, we screen Raoul Walsh’s definitive gangster movie The Roaring Twenties, starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, and chosen and introduced by writer, director and comedian Peter McGann.

Friday 25th & Wednesday 30th
Wild Strawberries, our monthly film club for over 55s, presents Black Bag, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and starring Ireland’s own Michael Fassbender.

Tickets are just €5.50 for IFI Members and €6.00 for non-members, and include a free tea or coffee!

Sunday 27th
This month’s IFI Family chimes in with our Australian Dreams season to present BMX Bandits, a classic family caper best known for being Nicole Kidman’s first feature role. Tickets are just €7.00, with a Family of 4 ticket available for €23.00!

On the same day, the Mystery Matinée returns! Let us take the hassle out of choosing the movie. Grab a ticket, sink into your comfy cinema seat and prepare to enjoy a surprise film. Will it be a brand-new release hot off the presses, or a forgotten cult classic that you missed on the big screen? One thing’s for sure, it will always be a brilliant and unexpected piece of quality cinema, with tickets costing just €6.50 for IFI Members, and €7.00 for non-members.

Wednesday 30th
The IFI From The Vaults strand this month presents Cathal Black’s Korea, starring a young Andrew Scott alongside the ever-riveting Donal Donnelly. The film has been newly and sumptuously restored by the IFI Irish Film Archive, using original 35mm elements, for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann.

IFI Special Events
Monday 7th
This July, we are delighted to once again partner with the Irish Modern Dance Theatre to present a programme of new short Irish dance films, screening as part of the Dancer from the Dance Festival. Curated by John Scott, this programme gathers films by and about Irish and Irish identifying choreographers from a range of practices, ethnicities, and generations.

Saturday 12th
To mark the re-release of the iconic documentary Eleanor Coppola’s Hearts of Darkness, which captured and recorded the most chaotic productions in film history, the IFI will present a special screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. A magnificent spectacle, filled with fine performances and superb dialogue, any opportunity to witness Apocalypse Now on the big screen is not to be missed!

Irish & International Film Releases
From Friday 4th
Ross Whitaker’s latest documentary Beat The Lotto, which captures the real-life escapades surrounding the rigging of the Irish lottery; the 4K re-release of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, a revealing portrait of the making of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic, compiled from footage shot by his wife Eleanor during the legendarily troubled shoot; Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s intriguing adaptation of Deborah Levy’s Booker Prize-nominated novel Hot Milk; and David Cronenberg’s latest masterpiece The Shrouds.

The opening night screening of Beat The Lotto will be followed by a Q&A with director Ross Whitaker.

Are you an IFI Friend? Join us for our next IFI Cinema Club discussion after the screening of Hot Milk at 18.30 on Tuesday 8th.

From Friday 11th
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s auspicious debut feature Armand, starring Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) in perhaps her finest performance yet; and the 25th anniversary 4K re-release of Nine Queens, Fabián Bielinsky’s debut feature.

From Friday 18th
Stanley Kubrick’s lavish period drama Barry Lyndon, back on the big screen for its 50th anniversary, which sees the rise and fall of the eponymous and likeable 18th century Irish scoundrel; and new dark comedy Friendship, starring Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, and Paul Rudd; and Harvest, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s highly original third feature and starring Caleb Landry Jones.

The opening night screening of Barry Lyndon will be introduced by cast member Patrick Dawson (Seamus Feeney) in conversation with Derek O’Connor (RTÉ).

From Friday 25th
Dying, a multi-layered, poignant, bleakly humorous, and wholly engrossing family saga from Matthias Glasner; and a 4K re-release of Amadeus, a lavish, fictionalised account of the bitter rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri and upstart prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

IFI@Home
A world of incredible Irish and international cinema awaits in the IFI@Home library, with huge collections of classic and new films to rent and stream from the comfort of your couch. New releases and more available this July:

Streaming now!
A love triangle in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in stylish docufiction E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea, about iconic Irish artist and architect Eileen Gray; and Academy Award-winning animated feature Flow.

From July 1st
Complicit: The Films of Michael Haneke leaves our biggest screens, and lands on the IFI’s virtual 4th screen IFI@Home! Whether you’re encountering Haneke’s work for the first time or revisiting it anew, expect to be unsettled. That’s precisely the point. Full list of titles and rentals are available on www.ifihome.ie.

From July 14th
When Autumn Falls, a character-driven psychological drama from the ever-surprising and unpredictable François Ozon.

From July 15th
India Donaldson’s Good One, set during a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, where 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend.

IFI Film Shop
This July
New items available at the IFI Film Shop this month include Chantal Akerman Collection Vol. 2 (1982-2015), the BFI’s new addition to their selection of Blu-rays; and the Criterion Collection’s 4K Blu-ray release The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night.

All this and more at the IFI Film Shop – in-person at the IFI in Temple Bar, and online worldwide!

IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.