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Saipan

2002, shortly before the FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The Irish national football team arrives on the Pacific island of Saipan where they are to bond and train before moving to Japan. But the management’s relaxed approach does not match team captain Roy Keane’s expectations. The Man United star player is here to win it.

Book tickets to the Opening Gala here.

A repeat screening will take place on Friday, 7th November at 5pm in The Arc Cinema. Book tickets here.

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland Shorts

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is proud to present Irish short films funded under the Focus film schemes, along with Cork picks of recent Screen Ireland short films. This screening will feature the World Premieres of Aisling Brady's Like Me, Jason Branagan's Magic Markers and Jamie O'Rourke's The Afters.

The full line-up includes:

• Punt, directed by Nicky Larkin
• Like Me, directed by Aisling Brady
• A Song, directed by Ellius Grace
• Magic Markers, directed by Jason Branagan
• The Afters, directed by Jamie O'Rourke

Find out more about each film on the line-up here.

Book tickets here.

5 Irish short programmes will take place over the course of the Festival, including short films supported by Screen Ireland and Bow Street Academy's Actor as Creator and the National Talent Academies. Find out more here.

This is a Prison

The New Women’s Prison in Limerick is regarded as the most state-of-the-art prison in Europe. With an innovative ‘trauma-informed’ design this is a brave new touchstone for the Irish Prison Services; one that indicates a tide change in how prisons operate in Ireland. But what does success look like in a facility like this and how does it reflect upon a modern Ireland? What is rehabilitation? Next to what social norms? What does this all say about a society where some may feel safer incarcerated, indeed, where some not yet born are destined to end up ‘inside’? This screening will be followed by a discussion.

Book tickets here.

A Quiet Love

Three Deaf couples share their remarkable love stories: a decades-long forbidden romance across the Northern Irish divide, a lesbian couple navigating parenthood with Deaf and hearing children, and a Deaf boxer and his hearing partner facing a life-altering choice. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Garry Keane (Gaza, In the Shadow of Beirut), A Quiet Love is a deeply moving celebration of resilience, connection, and enduring love. It is Ireland’s first feature film in Irish Sign Language and was produced by a Deaf and hearing team. This screening will have Closed Captions and will be followed by a Q&A with an Irish Sign Language interpreter.

Book tickets here.

Answering The Call

Once common across Ireland, the distinctive rasping call of the corncrake is now a memory for most. Modern agriculture has driven this shy, mysterious bird to the brink – but hope remains. Small populations of the bird still survive on Ireland’s western coastline. Ecologists, farmers and local communities are all working hard to revive the habitat of the corncrake in the hope of the population increasing. From rural Ireland to central Africa, Answering the Call explores the interconnectedness of land, people, and wildlife. The film asks: if the corncrake’s fate is tied to farming and migration, can we rethink our relationship with the land in time to save it? Ultimately, the corncrake is more than a bird. It is a test of our willingness to adapt, a symbol of resilience, and a reminder that survival often depends on cooperation across borders and cultures. Followed by a Q&A with the director.

Book tickets here.

Cork International Film Festival celebrates its milestone 70th-anniversary edition, 6th – 16th November 2025. The Festival is proudly supported by Principal Funder the Arts Council, along with its Industry Partner Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, as well as Cork City Council; Department of Culture, Communications and Sport; Creative Europe MEDIA; Eurimages; Coimisiún na Meán; Culture Ireland; Rethink Ireland; Redbreast Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey; Murphy’s; Babelfís; UCC; Future Planet; HSE; Cork County Council; and Principal Venue Partner, ARC Cinemas. Media Partners are RTÉ Supporting the Arts and the Irish Examiner. 

All tickets are now on sale at corkfilmfest.org.