At this year’s Festival, discover stories of moral courage in our Retrospective: The Right Thing, where cinema explores the power of doing what’s right. Meet the bold visionaries of Disruptors, filmmakers who break rules and redefine the art form, with a special focus on director John Boorman who will receive our Honorary Disruptor Award.
Highlights from each strand are below here, and you’ll find the full curated selections on our website or myCIFF app.
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RETROSPECTIVE: THE RIGHT THING
ARMY OF SHADOWS
Jean-Pierre Melville | France, Italy | 1969 | 139 mins | Subtitled | Fiction
MON 10 | ARC CINEMA | 20:00
FRI 14 | EVERYMAN | 14:00
Gerbier, a civil engineer, gets trapped and tortured in a Nazi camp but manages to escape with the help of a friend. Back in Marseille, he looks for the traitor who reported him. This masterful suspense drama examines the inner workings of World War II resistance efforts.
This screening is supported by the French Embassy in Ireland and Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Dublino.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Sergio Leone | Italy | 1968 | 175 mins | Fiction
SAT 15 | EVERYMAN | 14:00
A railroad tycoon hires a cruel mercenary (Peter Fonda) to kill a man who owns prime estate. But when the man’s widow (Claudia Cardinale) inherits the land, only an outlaw and a mysterious gunslinger (Charles Bronson) can protect her from being killed. A timeless masterpiece, magnified by Ennio Morricone’s haunting, iconic music.
This screening is supported by Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Dublino.
WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOUSE
Abbas Kiarostami | Iran | 1987 | 83 mins | Subtitled | Fiction
THU 13 | EVERYMAN | 17:30
A schoolboy realises, as he is getting ready to do his homework, that he has mistakenly brought home a classmate’s notebook. Knowing that his friend risks being expelled if he does not hand in his homework in his own notebook, he sets off to find him. An unforgettable work of beauty.
DISRUPTORS
BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL
David Kittredge | United States | 2025 | 112 mins | Documentary
TUE 11 | TRISKEL | 17:15
After the success of Point Blank and Deliverance, Warner Brothers offered John Boorman the chance to direct a sequel to their smash hit, The Exorcist. The result was a critical and financial failure that nearly ended Boorman’s filmmaking career. But to be an artist is to be a risk-taker.
Photo: Carolyn Cole, LA Times
CIFF will present its Honorary Disruptor Award 2025 to filmmaker John Boorman followed by a screening of Zardoz at 20:00 on Tuesday 11 November at the Triskel.
We are also thrilled to welcome John Boorman’s longtime cinematographer Seamus Deasy, who will present the rare screening of two of Boorman’s short films: the delightful and witty Two Nudes Bathing (2001) and I Dreamt I Woke Up (1991). at 14:15 on Saturday 15 November at the Triskel.
EXCALIBUR
John Boorman | United Kingdom, United States | 1981 | 141 mins | Fiction
SUN 16 | EVERYMAN | 12:00
Arthurian mythology was never better portrayed on the big screen than by John Boorman in his epic retelling of the legend of Arthur Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. A visually breathtaking tale of swords and sorcery, to which a whole genre of cinema owes a great debt.
Photo: Carolyn Cole, LA Times
CIFF will present its Honorary Disruptor Award 2025 to filmmaker John Boorman followed by a screening of Zardoz at 20:00 on Tuesday 11 November at the Triskel.
We are also thrilled to welcome John Boorman’s longtime cinematographer Seamus Deasy, who will present the rare screening of two of Boorman’s short films: the delightful and witty Two Nudes Bathing (2001) and I Dreamt I Woke Up (1991). at 14:15 on Saturday 15 November at the Triskel.
