Audi Dublin International Film Festival – 16th – 26th February 2017

What’s not to love about the Audi Dublin International Film Festival? Can you think of anything? I certainly can’t!

First off you have the International stars. They come, they share their fantastic lives with us and then disappear back to Hollywood! This year the big name is Vanessa Redgrave but you also have talent such as Nathalie Baye, Kerry Fox, Ross Noble, Ben Wheatley, and Anna Friel.

Next you have the top Irish Talent. While we may take them for granted, they still dazzle. This year there’s Jack Reynor, Moe Dunford, Cillian Murphy, John Butler and Aiden Gillen.

Then there’s the Galas and World Premieres:

• The Gala Opening Night of ADIFF 2017 will be the Irish Premiere of Maudie –  the internationally acclaimed biopic of folk artist Maud Lewis by award-winning Irish director Aisling Walsh (Song for a Raggy Boy) and starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.
• Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture, adapted from the award-winning novel by Sebastian Barry, will receive a Gala Irish Premiere.
• Top Irish talent Jack Reynor, Cillian Murphy and Ben Wheatley will attend the Audi Gala screening of Wheatley’s new film Free Fire.
• ADIFF’s new Centrepiece Gala will be Neasa Ní Chianán and David Rane’s In Loco Parentis documentary study of the Headfort School.
• Juanita Wilson’s Tomato Red will receive its Irish premiere at the festival with cast member Anna Friel in attendance.
• Director Alan Gilsenan’s Unless, another Irish premiere, features Catherine Keener as a mother attempting to reconnect with her a daughter who seems all but lost to her.

The Interviews:

A singular master of film adaptations, Terence Davies will take part in a public interview with Roddy Doyle.

ADIFF will present the Volta Award to Vanessa Redgrave this year, and it will no doubt be the main event. The Volta Award is the Festival’s most prestigious honour, reserved for those who have made an outstanding contribution to the world of film.

And then there’s my personal highlight – The Surprise Film. How many times have I been burned on this, and I still come back for more?

Tickets go on sale online and the digital programme will be available to browse and download from 6.30pm on 18th Jan at www.diff.ie. Tickets available by phone on +353 1 687 7974 or in person at DIFF, 13 Ormond Quay from 10am Thurs 19th Jan.

Witness film history in the making at one of the many World Premieres at ADIFF17Dennis Bartok’s terrifying hospital horror Nails; and Aiden Gillen and Jamie Thraves’ Pickups that features Gillen playing a semi-fictionalised version of himself, a troubled actor weighing the price of success.

The Arts Council and ADIFF’s Reel Art documentary commissions receive their World Premieres at the Irish Film Institute. Ken Wardrop (His & Hers) brings his characteristic warmth and humanity to piano grade exams in The Piano Lesson while John Murray and Traolach Ó Murchú’s Photo City delves into the celluloid history of Rochester, NY.

Rounding up a stellar festival at ADIFF’s prestigious Closing Night Gala is the Irish premiere of Handsome Devil, John Butler’s (The Stag) new comedy-drama set in an Irish boarding school.

International Programme

Three international screen actors, Nathalie Baye, Kerry Fox and François Cluzet, will attend the festival, each giving tour-de-force performances that build on already remarkable careers. French screen icon Baye becomes the target of a dangerous obsession in Moka; New Zealander Fox features as the uncompromising acting teacher in The Rehearsal and gives us a welcome look back at her stunning performance in Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table; and known internationally for his performance in international hit The Intouchables, this year Cluzet stars in stylish paranoia thriller Scribe.

From Bhutan to New Zealand, Seoul to Senegal, Nova Scotia to Manila – ADIFF’s world cinema programme feature films from over 35 countries including vital new films from established auteurs to the Festival including Olivier Assayas, Pablo Larraín, Michael Winterbottom, Aki Kaurismäki, Ben Wheatley, Asghar Farhadi, Cristian Mungiu, Lone Scherfig and Terence Davies.

In 2011, Iko Uwais’ flying fists and lightning-fast feet in The Raid hailed a new hero of action cinema. Now Uwais returns as the hero of Headshot (an ADIFF Special Presentation) bringing his astounding fighting skills to this tale of amnesia and revenge.

Special Events and the

The meeting point between audiences, critics, talent and industry that the Festival provides extends far beyond the cinema screen in the ADIFF Special Events Masterclasses include Oscar-winning costume designer Alexandra Byrne, in association with Warner Bros. Creative Talent, whose credits range from the upcoming Jungle Book to Hamlet to Doctor Strange; and leading British director Ben Wheatley (High Rise, Free Fire). Celebrating and documenting the current high point in Irish film, ADIFF will present an exhibition by Hugh O’Conor featuring intimate portraits of his colleagues in the Irish film industry.