Explore the films that are nominated in our three Features Awards categories at this year’s Cork International Film Festival:
- Gradam Spiorad na FĂ©ile (Spirit of the Festival Award)
- Gradam na Féile do Scannáin Faisnéise (Award for Cinematic Documentary
- CIFF Youth Jury Award – recognising and celebrating some of the most exciting and compelling international cinema on offer
All Festival tickets and passes (including our 5 Film Cinema Pass) are on sale now.
SPIRIT OF THE FESTIVAL AWARD
Featuring six beautiful pieces of international cinema, Gradam Spiorad na FĂ©ile (Spirit of the Festival Award) celebrates new and daring voices in contemporary fiction cinema from European first and second-time directors.
Mysterious occult period thriller Arvéd (Sat, 12 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema) is based on the real controversial figure from early 20th-century Prague, philosopher, occultist and Nazi collaborator, Jiri Arvéd Smichovsky.
When Pamfir (Thu, 17 Nov, Gate Cinema) returns to his family in Western Ukraine, an incident caused by his son forces him to revisit his troubled past.
In the strange and wondrous Piaffe (Wed, 16 / Sun, 20 Nov, Gate Cinema), shy, introverted foley artist Eva discovers a horse’s tail growing from her spine and becomes empowered by her new appendage.
Following his brother Damir’s suicide attempt, Bruno and his mother struggle against institutional bureaucracy to ensure that he remains safe in Safe Place (Sigurno Mjesto) (Fri, 18 / Sun, 20 Nov, Gate Cinema)
The Woodcutter Story (Thu, 17 Nov, Gate Cinema) is a dark comedy about a woodcutter, Pepe, who has recently experienced a spell of really bad luck, but is determined to remain calm no matter what.
The gripping drama The Worst Ones (Les Pires) (Fri, 18 Nov, Gate Cinema) follows kids from a tough neighbourhood on a film shoot, won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2022. Presented in association with the French Embassy in Ireland and Alliance Française.
Award for Cinematic Documentary
Our Gradam na Féile do Scannáin Faisnéise (Award for Cinematic Documentary) celebrates and recognises documentary filmmakers who push cinematic boundaries whilst drawing you into an up-close-and-personal exploration of their fascinating chosen topics.
1341 Frames of Love & War (Thu, 17 Nov, Gate Cinema) is a mesmerising portrait of war photographer Micha Bar-Am, who has chronicled Israel’s various conflicts for half a century.
A heart-wrenching and utterly riveting film, Children of the Mist (Fri, 18 Nov, Gate Cinema) is about the life of a teenage girl in a North Vietnamese mountain village.
How To Save A Dead Friend (Thu, 17 Nov, Gate Cinema), Marusya and Kimi’s love story, straddles a lost generation of Russian millennials, seeking out euphoric self-destruction in a world that doesn’t care.
Set against a stark background of immense hardship, in If You Are A Man (Sat, 12 / Thu, 17 Nov, Gate Cinema) 13-year-old Opio is determined to go to school, even if raising the fee means working the Burkina Faso goldmines.
Kash Kash – Without Feathers We Can’t Live (Wed, 16 Nov, Gate Cinema) documents the modern-day travails of Beirut as seen from the eccentric perspective of the city’s hyper-competitive roof-top pigeon fanciers.
For the The Visitors (Fri, 18 Nov, Gate Cinema), A Czech anthropologist moves with her family to Svalbard, a Norwegian town in the middle of the Arctic ocean, to study the local community.
YOUTH JURY AWARD
The Youth Jury Award recognises and highlights films tackling powerful themes that resonate with young audiences. The Jury comprises students from University College Cork, Munster Technical College, and St John’s Central College.
In Arnold Is A Model Student (Tue, 15 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema), academic star Arnold has won many awards for his school, gaining the favour of his headmaster and awarding him a level of privilege not given to his fellow classmates. But as Arnold becomes involved in an exam-cheating scheme, the other students draw up a manifesto.
Beautiful Beings (Tue, 15 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema) is a violent yet sensitive and poetic coming-of-age drama as beautiful but also as cold as Iceland itself. The story focuses on 14-year-old Addi, leader of a little gang of misfits that befriends a bullied boy and includes him in his group.
In Christina Tynkevych’s How Is Katia? (Tue, 15 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema) Anya’s life appears to be on the up, she has just taken out a mortgage for the dream apartment where she will live with her 10-year-old daughter, Katia. When tragedy turns Anya’s life upside down, she finds herself facing a dilemma which makes her question society’s lack of morals, and upends her own.
The mysterious Slovakian horror/drama Nightsiren (Tue, 15 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema) by director Tereza Nvotova follows a young woman who returns to her native mountain village in search for answers from her past. Her arrival is accompanied by a series of unexpected events related to ancient legends and the villagers accuse her of murder.
In Leonor Will Never Die (Tue, 15 / Sat, 19 Nov, Gate Cinema), when a television set falls on retired action film screenwriter Leonor Reyes’s head, she ends up in a coma. Although her body might be still, her mind is dropped into her own unfinished screenplay and she is thrust into an action-packed plot line.
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