Irish Shorts 2: In Competition
A selection of Irish and world premiere shorts by Irish and Irish-based documentary and artist filmmakers.

REFRACTIVE HYMN - Cíana Fitzgerald
Shot on 16mm amid Iceland’s volcanic winter, this psychospiritual odyssey explores the reclamation of a fragmented self and the search for transcendence, wholeness and divine connection.

SELF-PRESERVING NUDITY (YA NE ZNYKAIU) - Nelly Shylova [D]
Fleeing the Russian invasion with her children, a Ukrainian woman finds herself suspended between reality and dream in Ireland, as this poetic documentary explores exile, trauma and the quiet death of displacement.

MUSCLE BOUND - Colin Peppard [D] [RU]
A retired bodybuilder confronts the quiet collapse that follows the spotlight.

MIRROR MARTYR MIRROR MOON - Jesse Jones
Through 16mm film and operatic music, Jesse Jones reimagines Mount Sinai as a landscape of martyrdom, healing and contemplation, invoking Artemisia Gentileschi’s Saint Catherine as a “triple-headed goddess”.

GO YE AFAR - Frank Sweeney
An Irish-Nigerian taxi driver embarks on a miraculous journey through the streets of Dublin and Calabar, where two worlds converge in an extraordinary voyage.

A POOL IN WHICH I PLAY - Erik Nuding [D]
Once upon a time, a goddess becomes a river. A drifting barrel becomes a letter. And after decades of silence, my mother and grandmother begin to speak again through the ocean between them.
All films in competition are eligible for the Grand Prix Irish Short Award and when indicated Grand Prix Documentary Short Award [D], Redbreast UNHIDDEN Short Award [RU] and Best Cork Short Award [C]
