IRISH ANIMATION
Sun 13 July | 12:30 | Town Hall Theatre | 59’
This vibrant collection of Irish animations spans fantasy, memory, music and mythology. Through poetic journeys and experimental storytelling, these films showcase a thriving animation scene full of energy and craft. Featuring emerging and established voices, it offers a glimpse the wild heart of Ireland’s animators’ imagination.
Films in our programme can include mature themes/adult content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Boglach
A short film created for the Irish Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka. Characters throughout a familiar green island are connected by their obsession with the weather; working together to harvest raindrops and turn them into clouds.
Director/Writer: Sarah Benson
Producer: Claire Lennon
Mary Coughlan – Is That All There Is?
Created to accompany Mary Coughlan’s haunting rendition of “Is That All There Is?” from her most ambitious project to date – Mirrors, a reimagining of Peggy Lee’s 1975 album, written by Leiber & Stoller.
Director/Producer: Josh O’Caoimh
It All Comes Down
Three generations of women sit around a table as the granddaughter begins to question the past. A spark reveals inherited family memories of conflict and struggle in Northern Ireland.
Director: Meg Earls
Writers: Anna Moore, Amy Tattersall White
Producer: Arpita Ashok
The Consumption of Saint Marzano
A short experimental animation inspired by surrealist automatism, Marzano was produced with no storyboard or plan as a straight-ahead animation from start to finish.
Director: Oisín Heffernan
Rendezvous
Dave desires nothing more than a peaceful night’s rest. Unfortunately, the rats in his walls are out for booze, tunes, and violence. If his day was bad, his night is about to be worse.
Director/Writer: Lydia Stone
One Track Mind
Sophia the squirrel is on a healing train journey after losing her friend Flora. Guided by new friendships and nature’s beauty, she rediscovers joy, processes grief, and chooses to stay where hope and happiness await.
Director/Writer: Faye Isherwood Wallace
Producers: Johnny Schumann, David Cumming
Éiru
When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan’s village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it.
Director/Writer: Giovanna Ferrari
Producer: Nora Twomey
WildKind
This is a poem painted to awaken the senses, a fluid journey of hope and healing across our shared watercolour motherland. A universal bedtime story, and a call to nurture a wild, kind life.
Director: John McDaid
Writer/Producer: Ciara Tinney
Big Yeti
A man’s sorrow slowly transforms him, blurring the lines between human and monster. Is it better to forget who you are, or remember what you’ve done?
Director: Rory Kerr
Open Éire
Dáire is a young boy who aspires to be an animator. Follow him on a humorous trip around Ireland to take in the sights, smells, and sounds of Ireland’s culture and heritage.
Director: Walter Giampaglia
Producer: Jonathan Clarke
Between Young and Old
An old woman and her donkey return to the Blasket islands, her former home. They’re met with quiet and desolate houses. Nothing she remembers remains there. Strangely, they find an old oak stump, which is a portal into her youth.
Director: Niamh Kirwan