Galway Film Fleadh announces full programme for the 37th Edition
Galway Film Fleadh announces World, International and Irish Premieres for the 37th edition of the film festival taking place from 8 – 13 July in the Town Hall Theatre and Pálás Cinema. The 37th Fleadh will feature 31 World Premieres, 11 International/European Premieres and 46 Irish Premieres from 44 countries, featuring 96 feature films in total.
The Irish programme will feature 44 Irish feature films in the programme, including the World Premieres of The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan, Gerry Adams – A Ballymurphy Man, Solitary, Immrám, Sunphlowers, Listen To The Land Speak, Girls & Boys, Love Lane United, We Only Want The Earth, Abode, A Visual Storm – Aurelio Caminati and Loch Gréine | A Bright Vision. The Irish premiere of Sanatorium follows a summer at a place of healing, love and renewal and the European premiere of Elisa in Wonderland is a poetic, unsettling film blurs fantasy, delusion, beauty, and dread.
There are 11 Irish language feature films in the programme, including the World premieres of Báite which follows the discovery of a body in a rural village; Dance Master featuring dancer Breandán de Gallai; Tumtha reveals the story of the Coláistí Ullmhúcháin; Beo Faoin BhFód looks at how Mick Meaney was buried six foot under the London soil in a simple wooden coffin in 1968; Éire agus na Chéad Náisiúin tells the untold story of how Irish people interacted with the First Nations of North America and Trad follows Shóna and Mickey on a cross-country journey of adventure, romance, and musical exploration.
The World Cinema Competition features films that have screened and won awards at Tribeca, Berlin, Sheffield, IDFA, and TIFF., including EEL, where a woman with her own painful past meets a man haunted by nightmares; The Blue Trail follows Tereza who embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon; The Jacket is an intimate portrait of Jamal Hindawi, a Palestinian artist making political theatre in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp; The Cowboy is an uplifting story about accepting who you are, Welded Together sees a young welder try to protect her sister from a harsh reality; Mother of Snow Cranes tells the story of an incredible woman’s extraordinary life, from love to tragedy, to revolution, Winter in Sokcho awakens questions about a woman’s identity, and that of her French father and Dragonfly is a narrative that unflinchingly shines a light on the universal issue of social care, and caring for the elderly and marginalised.
Peripheral Visions, our European cinema competition for first and second feature film makers features a €5,000 prize, and in 2025, the films featured are from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Romania, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, and France.
The Fleadh will screen films from 40 debut film makers and the New Dimensions strand includes a road-drama following the death of a migrant in The Ceremony, unhappy couples seeking relationship advice at a police station in Marriage Cops, a road trip to southern Tunisia in Where The Wind Comes From; siblings reconvening at their childhood home in the International premiere of Battersea, and a film about living with dementia in Walk With Me.
The CineFleadh Collection presents films you don’t want to miss at the Fleadh including the International premiere of Adult Children, the Irish premiere of Cast of Shadows which examines how Frances Hubbard Flaherty was the person who made all her husband’s major films happen; Omaha captures the journey of a father who loves his children, but is uncertain about how to navigate the challenges they face and The Life of Chuck is a life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella.
The Architecture on Film strand, presents films about the once-prominent silverfish structures in Lost Silverfish of Berlin, the transformative architectural partnership of Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney in Maurice & I, the story of a giant called ‘Ferrania’ in L’Ombra del Gigante, the building of Donegal’s first legal whiskey distillery in 200 years in Still He Waits, and a documentary exploring how architectural ideas are passed down in Temptation of Influence.
The GENERATION strand has films featuring coming-of-age stories, including life as a young carer in Olmo, family trauma in Soft Leaves, a strong mother in Queen Mom, a ‘folk high school’ in Norway in Folktales, and a young death that leaves secrets behind in Thereafter. The Artist on Film strand includes a journey led by patterns far and deep in Ripples of Physis, a documentary that follows a trailblazing game designer in Game On, a photographer who bore witness to some of the most significant social and cultural moments in modern American history in Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere and an immersive, intimate love story portrait, guided by the artist’s life in Do Painters Die Elsewhere.
In the films in the Defender strand, women take over religion in Girls and Gods, volunteers find and return the bodies of migrants to their families in Spare My Bones, Coyote!, five citizens are forced to leave Sudan for East Africa following the outbreak of war in Khartoum, an elected councilwoman aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions in Cutting Through Rocks, a retired sea captain sparks a journey of self-discovery in The Captain and a Palestinian teen confronts Israeli soldiers at a West Bank protest in All That’s Left of You and we follow the story of the late Sunny Jacobs in Stolen Lives.
What The Fleadh?! returns with a genre cinema programme where anything might happen, with films from the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, the UK, N. Ireland, the USA, and France including the World Premiere I Hope We Can Still be Friends, the Irish Premiere of The Thing With Feathers and the European Premiere of The Wolf, the Fox & The Leopard.
Music on Film includes stories about a legendary music industry figure in BP Fallon Rock’n’Roll Wizard, a tormented love story between a young artist couple in Rock Bottom, an iconic and influential Irish musician in In Time – Dónal Lunny, the best band you never heard of in Once We Were Punks, a heart-tugging story about a talent gone too soon in The Essence of Eva, a fun look at one of music’s most groundbreaking bands in Boy George & Culture Club and a film that examines the rich musical heritage of Ireland’s Traveller community in Ag Taisteal Siar.
Through a curated programme of film premieres, immersive experiences, and industry events, France-In-Focus will highlight the innovation and diversity of French cinema and creative talent across the French screen industry and aims to foster new collaborations between France and Ireland. (France-In-Focus is presented in association with the French Embassy in Ireland, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, and the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), with the support of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Institut français as part of France’s strategy for the international export of cultural and creative industries.)
The Bingham Ray New Talent Award recognises Bingham’s generosity, wealth of knowledge and contribution to the industry each year and in 2025 features 11 nominees from all disciplines across film including a cinematographer, actors, writers, directors, producers and an animator.
The Fleadh will screen over 100 Irish and International shorts, which will be in competition for the Fleadh’s Oscar® qualifying prizes. The Galway Film Fair will be running alongside the Fleadh with masterclasses in Directing and Casting led by Ali Abbasi (Border, Holy Spider, The Apprentice) and Maureen Hughes, Louise Kiely and Luci Lenox respectively while Constance Tsang (Blue Sun Palace) attends as a guest speaker for Facing In/Facing Out: A Development Workshop for Screenwriters created in collaboration with Stowe Story Labs