LUX Audience Award Film Weekend with CIFF: View and Rate the best European films for FREE with Cork International Film Festival, 24th-26th March
(l to r: Will-o’-the-wisp; Triangle of Sadness; Close; Burning Days; Alcarràs)
Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) is inviting audiences to embark on a cinematic weekend trip across Europe from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th March as part of its CIFF European Film Weekend, a FREE pocket festival of the latest and best features and shorts from across the EU, showcasing the five feature films short-listed for the 2023 LUX Audience Award (and a chance to rate the films!), complemented by four programmes of short films selected from the 2022 European Film Academy Short Award nominations.
As Ireland’s largest film festival and this country’s official representative at the European Film Academy (EFA) Short Film Award, CIFF takes great pride in showcasing acclaimed and award-winning films from Europe in cinemas in Cork and online nationwide every year. As part of its bite-sized ‘European Film Weekend’ running at the Gate Cinema, Cork, 24th – 26th March, CIFF has partnered with the European Parliament Liaison Office in Ireland and the Gate Cinema to present the five feature films shortlisted for the LUX Audience Award 2023 for FREE*.
Representing the very best of recent European cinema, the LUX Audience Award screenings comprise: Lukas Dhont’s Close, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Emin Alper’s Burning Days, Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, and João Pedro Rodrigues’s Will-o’-the-wisp. MEPs Deirdre Clune and Billy Kelleher will also be in attendance at the opening screening, Close, to officially launch the LUX Audience Award Weekend.
The LUX Audience Award aims to strengthen ties across Europe by connecting audiences through cinema and inviting them to become an active part of the European film community by rating their favourite films. An integral part of these screenings is rating your favourite film in the largest audience award in the world. Therefore, CIFF invites all audiences to rate the LUX Audience Award films they’ve watched over the weekend festival or online via a very simple star rating, available on corkfilmfest.org or here. The competition is open until 12th June 2023.
In addition to the LUX Audience Awards screenings, CIFF will present four programmes of short films nominated for the 2022 EFA Short Film Award, including the winning film Granny’s Sexual Life / Babičino Seksualno Življenje (directed by Urška Djukic, Émilie Pigeard), on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th March, also available to book for FREE*. Comprising four diverse programmes, covering fiction and documentary, these films celebrate the variety of subjects and creativity of filmmakers from all over Europe.
*FREE but ticketed. All films/shorts programmes must be pre-booked via corkfilmfest.org or myCIFF app.
CIFF EUROPEAN FILM WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday 24th – Sunday 26th March at Gate Cinema, Cork City
Friday, 24th March
BOOKED OUT!
LUX AUDIENCE AWARD SCREENING: Close
6.15pm
Directed by Lukas Dhont (Belgium, France, Netherlands | 104 min | 2022 | 15A)
The intense friendship between two 13-year-old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened; Leo approaches Sophie, Remi’s mother. Close is a film about friendship and responsibility, and won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
NOTIFY ME IF EXTRA TICKETS BECOME AVAILABLE
Saturday, 25th March
EFA Short Programme 1: Coming of Age
11am
Pivotal moments in characters’ lives, where momentous change is sought by or imposed upon them. (115 mins; pictured above: Dad’s Sneakers / Papyni Krosivky)
EFA Shorts Programme 2: Parents
1.30pm
Parents are the common thread in these five tales, either through their relationships with their sons or daughter, or through their absence in their hour of need. (105 mins; pictured above: Cherries / Uogos)
NOTIFY ME IF EXTRA TICKETS BECOME AVAILABLE
BOOKED OUT!
LUX AUDIENCE AWARD SCREENING: Triangle of Sadness
2pm
Directed by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, Germany, France, United Kingdom | 142 min | 2022 | 15A)
An uninhibited satire where roles and class are inverted and the tawdry economic value of beauty is unveiled. Models Carl and Yaya are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues’ gallery of super-rich passengers, a Russian oligarch, British arms dealers and an idiosyncratic, alcoholic, Marx-quoting captain. At first, all appears Instagrammable. But a storm is brewing, and the cruise ends catastrophically. Carl and Yaya find themselves marooned on a desert island with a group of billionaires and one of the ship’s cleaners. Hierarchy is suddenly flipped upside down, as the housekeeper is the only one who knows how to fish.
LUX AUDIENCE AWARD SCREENING: Burning Days
5.15pm
Directed by Emin Alper (Turkey, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Croatia | 130 min | 2022 | 16+)
Emre is a prosecutor, young, ambitious and dedicated. He is appointed to a position in a small, remote town, drastically hit by a water crisis and rife with political scandal. After an initially steady start and seemingly accepted into the community, Emre becomes inadvertently embroiled in an incident which could devastate his career. In this superbly crafted Turkish thriller, director Emin Alper expertly lets the tension bubble under the surface whilst gradually turning the thumbscrews and keeping the viewer guessing until the intense climax. (Screened at the 67th Cork International Film Festival, November 2022)
Sunday, 26th March
EFA Shorts Programme 3: Documentary
11am
A brilliant range of documentaries using animation, reconstruction and the essay form. (94 mins; pictured above: Granny’s Sexual Life / Babičino Seksualno Življenje)
EFA Shorts Programme 4: Possible Worlds
1.30pm
An exciting mix of films comprising zen meditations over future city-scapes, science-fictional views on gender and fertility, comic meditations on history, and weirdo outsiders. (91 mins; pictured above: The Salamander Child / l’Enfant Salamandre)
LUX AUDIENCE AWARD SCREENING: Alcarràs
2pm
Directed by Carla Simón (Spain, Italy | 120 min | 2022 | 15A)
This Spanish drama follows the Solé family, who have been tending the peach orchard in the little traditional Catalan village of Alcarràs for generations. This large happy family is making a living from picking peaches every summer, however, the new owner decides to replace the trees with solar panels. This moving, intimate and authentic personal portrait of a tight-knit family facing an uncertain future won director Carla Simón The Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2022. (Screened at the 67th Cork International Film Festival, November 2022)
LUX AUDIENCE AWARD SCREENING: Will-o’-the-Wisp
4.30pm
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal, France | 67 min | 2022 | 18+)
On his deathbed, his royal highness Alfredo, king without a crown, is taken back to distant youth memories and the time he dreamt of becoming a fireman. The encounter with instructor Afonso from the fire brigade, opens a new chapter in the life of the two young men immersed in love and desire, and the will to change the status quo.
The LUX Audience Award screenings are proudly presented by Cork International Film Festival in partnership with the European Parliament Liaison Office in Ireland and the Gate Cinema.
About Cork International Film Festival
Cork International Film Festival is Ireland’s first and largest film festival and celebrates its 68th anniversary edition 9th-19th November 2023. The Festival is proudly supported by Principal Funder the Arts Council, along with Cork City Council, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Creative Europe MEDIA, BAI, ESB Energy for Generations Fund, Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, Future Planet, The Gate Cinemas, Murphy’s and UCC. Media Partners are RTÉ Supporting the Arts, the Irish Examiner and Red FM. Cork International Film Festival is a member of the Cultural Cinema Partnership which includes the Irish Film Institute, Galway Film Fleadh, Dublin International Film Festival and access>CINEMA.
Cork International Film Festival – Discover film, reimagine the world
About LUX – The European Audience Film Award
LUX – The European Audience Film Award was introduced in 2020 and is presented every year by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas. The long list of films in contention is drawn from all the Fiction and Documentary nominations put forward to the EFA Awards. Five of those films were selected at the EFA Awards on 10th December 2022 in Reykjavík, Iceland, and are shortlisted for the LUX Audience Award 2023. For more information on the LUX Audience Award visit here.
Exclusive Coffee Deal with Priory Coffee Co.
We are delighted to offer CIFF audiences a special 15% discount on every coffee in Priory Coffee Co. on North Main Street, next to The Gate Cinema. Simply present your LUX Audience Award or EFA Shorts ticket at the counter to apply the discount and enjoy 15% off any delicious cup of coffee throughout the CIFF European Film Weekend (24th – 26th March). Book your tickets now to avail of this deal.
