Irish Shorts 2: In Competition

Programme two of Irish and world premieres. This selection reflects a flourishing wave of artist filmmaking in Ireland, showcasing experimental and bold narrative choices. The short form is ideally suited for these more thoughtful, complex, but no less accessible approaches. 

We open with the latest film from the winner of last year’s SDGI Best Director Award. We follow that with a playful but pointed outsider view of Ireland; the latest offering from last year’s Film Artist in Residence at UCC; a multi-layered film easy assemblage of found sound and image; and a beautiful and beguiling science-fictional encounter in an Irish peat bog.  

FÜR BETTINA

Adrian Duncan | 2023 | 20 mins | Ireland

A silent-film love story told through a public sculpture in Berlin of the 19th-Century Romantic poets Bettina and Achim von Arnim.

TÁIM ABHAILE [C]

Martina Aloia | 2022 | 11 mins | Ireland

The overwhelming feeling of displacement experienced by many foreigners, immigrants and students living abroad is portrayed through a mythological depiction of modern Irish bureaucracy, delivered in the form of a folktale.

MYRRH

Yvonne McDevitt | 2023 | 24 mins | Ireland

Buñuelian heartbreak and thoughts of post-colonialism on a melting glacier in the Alps.

MUSIC FOR SOLO PERFORMER

Jenny Brady | 2022 | 18 mins | Ireland

Part-homage, part-sequel… a filmic reimagining of composer Alvin Lucier’s work for amplified brainwaves, drawing connections between the 1969 composition, speech synthesis and the passing of the filmmaker’s mother.

WHALE FALL

Patrick Hough | 2023 | 16 mins | Ireland

In an Irish peat bog, the inexplicable remains of a humpback whale are discovered by two rural women. Drawn into the mystery of how and why it has appeared, they soon realise the whale is exerting its own magnetic force.

[C] Denotes eligible for Best Cork Short Award.

All films are eligible for the Grand Prix Irish Short Award.