67th Cork International Film Festival Reveals Full Programme for 2022, including 4 Screen Ireland supported features
Posted: 12th October 2022
The 67th Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced Lord David Puttnam as its Patron alongside its full programme for 2022, including the Screen Ireland supported Aisha for its Opening Night Gala directed by Frank Berry.
The Festival is delighted to welcome Lord David Puttnam as the Festival's new Patron. CIFF Chair, Barney Whelan said:
“We are honoured to have the endorsement and friendship of David, a true luminary of film and education, to help support our continued development.”
Lord Puttnam spent 30 years as an independent producer of award-winning films, including The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone, and Local Hero. He is the Chair of Atticus Education, an online education company founded in 2012 that delivers audio-visual seminars to students all over the world. Lord Puttnam commented:
“Film can be a great force for good, and film festivals create a unique space for shared experience, to entertain and provoke, to inspire and delight, and to promote thought and action. Cork International Film Festival plays a vital role in the cultural life of Cork, maximising participation for audiences and artists in a shared creative experience. As Patron I am delighted to support the Festival’s continued development and success as it approaches its 70th anniversary in 2025.”
The Festival will present a curated programme of in-venue screenings and events across Cork city and county in The Gate Cinemas (Cork City, Midleton and Mallow), Cork Opera House, The Everyman, Triskel, Sirius Arts Centre Cobh and The Metropole Hotel from Thursday 10th to Sunday 20th November. An online digital programme of film highlights will be available online on corkfilmfest.org from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th November.
The Festival programme comprises:
- 5 Gala Presentations including Opening, Documentary, Animation, Family and Closing
- 3 Special Presentations including A Trip to the Moon Cine Concert, 50th Anniversary screening of The Harder They Come, and 1922 Commemoration screening of The Wind That Shakes the Barley
- 112 Irish and International Fiction and Documentary Features
- 87 Irish Feature Premieres
- The Wild Child Retrospective of international and Irish fiction celebrating childhood on film
- Programme Strands include Culinary Cinema (food and film), Green Screen (climate action), Guilty Pleasures (cult classics), Illuminate (mental health), and Parallax (artist moving image)
- Expanded Family, Young People and Schools programme
We are delighted to see four Screen Ireland supported features included in the full line-up.
The 67th Festival will open with the Irish premiere of Aisha, directed by Frank Berry, on Thursday 10th November at Cork Opera House. Aisha charts the experiences of a young Nigerian woman (Letitia Wright) as she seeks asylum in Ireland. Caught in limbo for years in the Direct Provision system, Aisha develops an unlikely friendship with kind Conor Healy (Josh O’Connor), but their friendship soon looks in jeopardy as Aisha’s future in Ireland comes under threat. The film will be released in Irish cinemas on November 17th.
Nocebo, directed by Lorcan Finnegan, centers on a fashion designer who suffers from a mysterious illness that confounds her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino nanny who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth. The psychological thriller has recently screened at BeyondFest, and will head to the Sitges Film Festival this week for its European Premiere.
A life affirming story about the unexpected connections that can change the course of our lives, Ballywalter will also screen at the Festival. Directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, the film will be fresh off its World Premiere at the Belfast Film Festival on November 3rd.
Finally, Adrian Sibley's portrait of the fascinating actor throught the eyes of his three sons The Ghost of Richard Harris will be one of the Irish documentaries featured at the festival. Co-produced by Bright Yellow Films and Samson Films, the film received its World Premiere earlier this year at the Venice International Film Festival.
We are proud to see a wide range of Screen Ireland supported films selected for the Festival's Shorts programmes. Six short films from Screen Ireland and Bow Street Academy's Actor as Creator scheme will premiere at the festival, including Kellie Blaise's Woman in Retrograde, Joshua Donoghue's Agapé, Barry O'Connor's Echo, Ella Connolly's Point of View and Tania Notaro's Glitterbug. Additionally, a range of films which premiered at this year's Galway Film Fleadh will screen in the non-competition Irish shorts programme, including Eoin Duffy's Regular Rabbit, Sinéad O'Loughlin's Lamb, Aaron Monaghan's Departure and Mia Mullarkey's Safe as Houses.
Speaking about CIFF2022, Festival Director and CEO, Fiona Clark said:
"Five Gala presentations represent the best of Irish and international filmmaking, opening with the beautifully observed and acted drama Aisha by acclaimed Irish director Frank Berry, premiering on Thursday 10th November at Cork Opera House and Friday 11th November at The Gate. Academy Award®-winning documentarist Laura Poitras’ portrait of American photographer Nan Goldin, All The Beauty and the Bloodshed is this year’s Documentary Gala, direct from winning the Golden Lion Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, and it will screen on Friday 18th November at the Everyman. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ original action-packed adventure Strange World by director Don Hall is this year’s Animation Gala on Saturday 19th November at The Everyman and on Sunday 20th November our Family Gala is Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, which will be introduced by Irish newcomer Alisha Weir, who plays Matilda in the film. The Festival concludes on Sunday 20th November with a Closing Gala of Academy Award®-winning director Sam Mendes' powerful and poignant film Empire of Light, which will follow the announcement of the CIFF2022 Features Awards."
Anna Kopecká, CIFF Director of Programming commented:
“We are delighted to be presenting a full Festival over eleven days in cinema with premieres of international and new Irish feature films, which we are excited to share with Cork audiences. The programme features drama, history, horror and fascinating personal portraits including new psychological thriller by Vivarium director, Lorcan Finnegan, Nocebo; a dark comedy from Northern Ireland, Ballywalter by Prasanna Puwanarajah, about an unlikely friendship and the power of humour in difficult times, starring Patrick Kielty and Seána Kerslake; ; and Stephen Halls' horror period drama The Gates that was shot in Cork Gaol. Cork filmmakers will be represented by visual artist Natasha Bourke and her feature debut Concrete Keys that is also part of our extensive artist moving image programme and experimental new strand Parallax. 2022 is a year rich for Irish documentary features and we are proud to showcase three of them in Cork, two portraits of important artists, Adrian Sibley’s fascinating exploration of one of the most remarkable actors Ireland has ever produced with The Ghost of Richard Harris, and Paul Muldoon: A Life In Lyrics by Alan Gilsenan, featuring poetic interludes and special musical performances, as well as Game of Truth (Ar Lorg Na Fírinne), an investigative documentary by Fabienne Lips-Dumas.”
Further programme strands include the International fiction programme, Wild Child Restrospective programme, International Documentary, Culinary Cinema, Green Screen, Illuminate, Guilty Pleasures and Parallax.
The Special Presentation 1922 commemoration event is Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley supported by Cork City Council, and Cork-themed treasures from collections in the IFI Irish Film Archive. The Festival’s popular Family and Schools' programme includes a delightful tale of a fire-eating girl in Dragon Princess, and the ever-popular Family Friendly Shorts, both with the addition of sensory-friendly screenings. Seven films specially selected for schools will be available in Cork, Midleton and mallow, and CIFF’s unique youth film and mental health programme, Intinn, returns to Cork in cinema and available online, for free.
Our city-wide Cork Film Trail returns presented in collaboration with the Irish Costume Archive Project and filmmakers at all stages of their career will be able to avail of in-person and online training and development sessions through our Industry Days - First Take, Doc Day Live and Doc Day Online. The Festival will present 10 Awards, including three that are Oscar®-qualifying, the Grand Prix Irish Short Award, Grand Prix International Short Award, and the Grand Prix Documentary Short Award, alongside features awards the Spirit of the Festival Award, presented by The Gate Cinemas, Award for Cinematic Documentary, and the Youth Jury Award.
Full Programme and Tickets
View the full programme from 12th October. All film details and tickets are now on sale at corkfilmfest.org or via our MyCIFF App.
Cork International Film Festival runs 10th – 20th November, 2022. Full programme available from Wednesday 12th October. corkfilmfest.org