The IFI and Screen Ireland Digital Restoration Project continues in 2026 with a brand new 2K restoration of John Huston's The Dead
Posted: 6th January 2026
Since 2022, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) has partnered with Screen Ireland on a unique five-year archiving project to catalogue, digitise and exhibit Ireland's film heritage.
Tonight, on the day on which the film is set, the IFI is pleased to present a new 2K restoration of John Huston’s masterpiece The Dead.
Founded to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Film Board, the IFI/Screen Ireland Digitisation Project is in the process of producing 28 high-quality digital remasters of the best of Irish cinema across four decades. Funded by Screen Ireland into 2027, and managed by the IFI Irish Film Archive, the project aims to renew and return to the spotlight many historic Irish film titles, while allowing the IFI Irish Film Archive to conserve its archival prints, which physically deteriorate through time and use.
With Screen Ireland funding, the IFI has been able to address the significant catalogue of Screen Ireland-funded 35mm prints produced before the introduction of Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs). With these new DCP copies, the material will be available to exhibitors throughout the country and further afield through IFI International.
The project will produce newly-digitised versions of older Irish Film Board/Screen Ireland titles, as well as a smaller selection of non-IFB/Screen Ireland titles, which will then be made widely available in cinemas and online.
Speaking about the project, IFI Director Ross Keane said:
"We are delighted to present a new 2k restoration of John Huston’s The Dead this evening as part of this continuing collaboration between IFI and Screen Ireland. This project highlights both organisations’ ongoing commitment to Ireland’s film heritage and the filmmakers and artists who have contributed to it so richly over the past 40 years. We look forward to welcoming audiences to experience the wonder of these restored classics on the big screen throughout 2026 and beyond."
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, added:
"The preservation of Irish film and Irish culture on screen is of strategic importance to Screen Ireland. We are very proud to support this significant restoration project with the Irish Film Institute. The projects screening in this series are a cinematic showcase of the legacy and cultural contribution made over decades of film history, and we're looking forward to Irish audiences being able to access and discover these fully restored films once again.”
Titles remastered to date include Robert Wynne-Simmons’s The Outcasts (1982) and Joe Comerford’s Reefer and The Model (1987); both films were restored in collaboration with the directors. Additionally, the project has produced restorations of Cathal Black’s Korea (1995), Marian Quinn’s 32A (2007), Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s Helen (2008), Cathal Black’s Korea (1995) and Conor McPherson’s The Eclipse (2009).
In 2024, Screen Ireland granted the IFI Irish Film Archive additional funding to formally restore films from outside the Irish Film Board/Screen Ireland back catalogue. Working closely with producers and directors, and from the best available film elements, titles in this strand of the project include John Huston’s The Dead (1987), Margo Harkin’s Hush-a-Bye Baby (1990) and Mike Newell’s Into The West (1992).
The restoration of The Dead involved a new 4K scan of a pristine-condition print held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), carried out by Roundabout Entertainment in California, with the film’s director of photography, Fred Murphy, ASC, supervising the colour grading in collaboration with Roundabout’s chief colour grader. From there it was handed over to the IFI Irish Film Archive team who used digital restoration tools to repair damage and defects in the copy, completing the digitisation process.
Fred Murphy, Director of Photography on John Huston’s The Dead (1987), said:
“[The audience is] going to be looking at a new copy made from the print, which is an unusual way of making copies. Usually, copies are made from the negative... but the print allows you to feel the experience of the original, I think, more. It has a kind of richness and glow that going from the negatives doesn’t seem to have in digital.”
This year, the newly-restored digital version will have its world premiere at the IFI, with an introduction by actress Maria McDermottroe who plays Molly Ivers in the film, and featurettes with Fred Murphy and the IFI Irish Film Archive team explaining the restoration process. Additionally, audience members can book in for a special meal which will be taking place post-screening in the IFI Cafe Bar in homage to the film’s dinner party setting.
In 2026, this restoration and digitisation project will continue with the presentation of newly-restored 30th anniversary versions of Gillies MacKinnon's Trojan Eddie, David Keating's The Last of the High Kings, and Trish McAdam's Snakes and Ladders.
Completed Screen Ireland/Irish Film Board digitisations by the end of 2025
Reefer and The Model (Joe Comerford, 1988)
Helen (Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, 2008)
The Outcasts (Robert Wynne-Simmons, 1982)
Garage (Lenny Abrahamson, 2007)
Trojan Eddie (Gillies McKinnon, 1996)
The Eclipse (Conor McPherson, 2009)
Korea (Cathal Black, 1995)
32A (Marian Quinn, 2007)
Disco Pigs (Kirsten Sheridan, 2001)
A Man of No Importance (Suri Krishnamma, 1994) (In progress)
Cowboys and Angels (David Gleeson, 2003) (In progress)
Completed non-Screen Ireland/Irish Film Board digitisations by the end of 2025
Hush-a-Bye Baby (Margo Harkin, 1990)
The Dead (John Huston, 1987)
Into the West (Mike Newell, 1992) (In progress)
The Shaughraun (Sidney Olcott, 1912)
Support
The restoration of John Huston’s The Dead (1987) from original 35mm elements has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann.
The IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.