My top 10 Irish films of all time

The danger in compiling a list like this is that there is a possibility of leaving out a film that is glaringly obvious. The only way to be fair is to not call the list the 10 best Irish films ever made. There is something reductive about articles that definitive. Film preferences are a deeply personal thing, completely subjective and there really is no right answer to the best ever. This list below comprises of my favourite Irish films. But I must stress that it is my top 10 films that I have seen. There may well be a film just around the corner that will explode into my favourites list and bump one of these out. In fact I am sure of that. There are still a lot of Irish films I have still to see or re-visit in some instances.

The main reason for doing this is to stir up some feeling about our national cinema. If you forcefully disagree with my choices, let me know. I want the whys and wherefores. I even want the ‘you don’t know what you are talking about’ comment if someone can give me alternative titles and a reason for their inclusion. All film fans in Ireland have a huge part to play in how we view our own films and how much exposure they get. The more we see now the more we will see in the future. It is about economics and bums on seats. The more we debate our cinema and how much it means to us (or not and why not) the more predisposed we will be towards Irish films in general. This may be overly optimistic but why not be optimistic for a change. Anyway here are my favourites. They are from 10 to 1 but the order is somewhat arbitrary as it changes with my mood.

10. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winning film about the struggle for Irish independence is a film more about tone and emotion than it is about visual representations of violence. This isn’t sensational and it isn’t a thriller. It is a fraught and angry film that dares to make every bullet count. There are moral ramifications for the murders that take place here. Every death counts. Cillian Murphy’s character asks at one point ‘whether this Ireland of ours will be worth it?’. This gets to the heart of a very philosophical film. How much violence, if any, can be justified for a particular cause? It is an important question in an important film.

9.  What Richard Did

 Lenny Abrahamson makes his first appearance on this list with his latest film. Anchored by a career making performance by Jack Reynor as the titular Richard, Abrahamson explores in the most naturalistic way that difficult transition into adulthood for young teens in Dublin. With a terrific script by Malcolm Campbell and beautiful camerawork, this is a world expertly drawn without missing a beat. The pivotal moment is captured in a disturbingly beautiful way and its aftermath is dealt with sensitively and with great filmic skill. Abrahamson is surely about to make it big on the world stage. Let us hope he continues to focus on Ireland as well as there is not a filmmaker that comes close to capturing as it is warts and all.

8. The Crying Game

Neil Jordan’s Oscar winning film is one that can be mulled over for quite a bit of time. It starts off as one film and by the end becomes quite another. It is a tribute to Jordan’s really strong screenplay that it all gels together so well. It is a story about a kidnapped British soldier, which becomes a love story, which turns everything on its head. There is a big reveal in the middle which sums up the film for some people but the film is so much more than that. Jordan can be a frustratingly indifferent filmmaker but when he is on form he is a brilliant one. Between this and The Butcher Boy Jordan has secured his place as one of Ireland's great filmmakers.

7. Silence

Acclaimed documentarian Pat Collins’ Silence is a film that came from nowhere with practically no advertising and blew me away. Silence is the story of Eoghan, a sound recordist living in Berlin who accepts a job back home in Ireland to document the countryside away from manmade sounds. This a feature film with a beguiling documentary feel, full of haunting and beautiful images of landscapes. For all the beautiful images on show this is really about the feeling inside, an urge to reconnect with a land and a life left behind. As Eoghan moves further and further away from civilisation he moves closer to where he hails from. This is his journey home. And what a stunning and moving journey it is. Silence is not just one of the best Irish films in 2012 but one of the best films of 2012 period.

6. Adam and Paul

Lenny Abrahamson’s film is quite frankly an unexpected joy. It is a film that came out of nowhere to confound an audience ready to jump on another clichéd story about drug addicts. But Adam and Paul is so much more. There is humour in the darkest of places. There is even an element of hope that bursts through on occasion. But what is most impressive is how humanistic the film is. This is a very timely reminder that the drug addicts on our street who we look at in disgust and mistrust are people and victims. We should care more. It is a beautiful and heartfelt film, that most wonderful of things: a melancholic joy.

5. My Left Foot

Jim Sheridan’s beautiful biopic of Dublin writer Christy Brown is a joy to behold. With Oscar winning performances by Daniel Day Lewis and Brenda Fricker, Sheridan tells in turn a warm and caustic tale.  It is a compassionate film, celebrating a unique story without sentimentality but with plenty of warmth. A critical and commercial success, My Left Foot arguably brought the Irish film industry into the international arena for the first time. This is a deeply humane film which Sheridan has yet to better.

4. The Butcher Boy

Neil Jordan’s dark and profane adaptation of Pat Mc Cabe’s novel is a wonderful achievement. Told by unreliable and troubled teenager Francie Brady, this film is an explosion of anger, grief, isolation and pop culture. It is also a social critique of small town Ireland in the 1950s. There are some wonderful performances from actors such as Jordan regular Stephen Rea and a wonderful Fiona Shaw as Francie’s nemesis Mrs Nugent. Add Sinead O’ Connor as a spiky Virgin Mary and it pretty much sums up the tone of this film. 

3. The Dead
John Huston's final film is a mesmerising adpatation of James Joyce's story from his Dubliners collection. Starring Donal Mc Cann and Angelica Huston the film is set at a dinner at a beautiful Dublin home in 1904. It is a tale of death and its inevitability. Shot with a wonderful intimacy by Huston although never intrusive, the film is elegant and very moving. There is humour to be had (the wonderful Donal Donnelly as the n'er do well Freddie Malins) but it is the singing of a particular song that stirs up some old emotions that leads the film to its extraordinary ending. There is terrific acting by the entire cast with particular mention to the truly missed Donal Mc Cann as Gabriel. This is a film that demands to be seen as fitting tribute to a great filmmaker.

2. Hunger

This film is a tour de force of acting and directing from the start. Michael Fassbinder plays Bobby Sands on hunger strike in the 1980s. Director Steve Mc Queen uses this as a springboard to make a film about the appalling dehumanising of the human spirit in prison. There is an audacious unbroken 15 minute scene in the film that is mesmerising and Mc Queen does not shy away from showing the horrors of prison life. Fassbinder is spellbinding as Sands with great support from Liam Cunningham as the priest. Harsh, brutal and moving Hunger is a towering achievement in Irish film.

1. Garage

There are some films on the list that on the surface tackle more important issues and weightier themes. But for me, there are none that come near to achieving the devastating emotional impact of Garage. It is a deceptively simply story of a simple man, Josie (Pat Short, astonishing), who looks after a garage in a small town in Ireland and his friendship with a local boy who comes to work with him. But Josie is lonely, heartbreakingly so, and his efforts at making connections are fraught with tension and pity. To say more of the plot would ruin the effect of the film. Suffice to say Mark O’ Halloran and Lenny Abrahamson have fashioned a film of beautiful intensity, by turns funny and sad. It is a magnificent achievement and one that will stay with you for a long time afterwards.

There are some films that are just outside the top 10 that could get in on another day. The honourable mentions are: Pyjama Girls, I Went Down, Once, In The Name of the Father, The Commitments, The General, In Bruges.

Film Review - The Other Side of Sleep (2012)

Rebecca Daly’s The Other Side of Sleep comes to our cinema screens with the weight of expectation on it shoulders. Daly was the first Irish woman to be featured in the director’s fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival receiving praise from filmmakers such as Jane Campion. Some films struggle to fulfil those kinds of expectations and in Ireland particularly, it is all too easy to cut someone down to size lest they get big headed. The important question is: does The Other Side of Sleep live up to the hype?

The answer to this must be an infuriatingly fence sitting yes and no. The film stars the mesmeric Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Arlene, a factory worker in Offaly who is prone to bouts of sleepwalking at night; she has a tendency to wake up outdoors. Indeed the startling image that begins the film is of her lying beside a dead body of a woman who is wrapped in a duvet. It is a shot of stunning beauty and horror. She sleeps oblivious to the dead woman lying inches from her face. It is an intimate and invasive shot, beautifully composed and it gets to the heart of the story in a much more interesting way than simple exposition.

Daly manages to do a wonderful thing throughout this film which is to make the small town where Arlene lives a living breathing character, full of menace. The threatening drone of the machines in the factory where she works, the local forest which has that dark fairytale feel of terror, and the roadside at night, where one could easily imagine women disappearing from quite easily. Even the bedsit Arlene lives in feels like it is closing in on her. It is small and claustrophobic. The grainy long shots of Arlene walking through a deserted town almost feel like surveillance footage, adding to the feeling that there is a threatening presence watching her.

There are no real problems in the first 45 minutes or so of the film as the nightmarish feel and the film’s refusal to make what is happening clear really work well. Your expectations and your lack of knowledge as to what precisely happened keeps you on edge and it is here that the film is at it’s strongest. It is after this though that the film’s problems start to come to the fore. In its imagery and style you are reminded of better films. In terms of the body in the forest, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks comes to mind. The dread associated with the feeling of being watched recalls some of Michael Haneke’s work. The associations are against some seriously good filmmaking and The Other Side of Sleep cannot stand up against these films. The main problem is that the story is actually quite slight which means it has difficulty sustaining itself over its quite lean 93 minute running time. As the film moves on and the red herrings and revelations start to mount up, the edgy electricity of the first half of the film dissipates which drags the film into whodunit territory. This is unfortunate as it undoes a great deal of the impressive work in the earlier parts of the film.

It must be said that there is a lot to like here. Daly has a great eye for composition and there are some really terrific scenes, particularly in the first half. The cast are very good and there is a sense of authenticity throughout the film. This is actually harder to achieve than it seems but Daly makes the film feel terrifyingly real at times. It is worth catching on the big screen to get the sense of menace the film generates. I have no doubt that with a better structured script, in the future we could be talking about Daly as one of our finest filmmakers.

5 Irish films you must see this year

Everyone knows about the big films in Ireland. Generally they know about the ones with stars such as Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne (although somewhat less so in recent years) or Brendan Gleeson in them. This is not said to disparage their work, more to highlight the difficulties faced by lower budget films or films by lesser known filmmakers to get noticed here. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at 5 films that I am personally interested in seeing this year that you may or may not have heard of yet. These all have the potential to break out and become a hit. Indeed there is much buzz on the festival circuit about some of these films already that it seems likely that at least one two of them might have a decent run at the box office. This to some degree is the whole philosophy behind writing this blog, to try and raise awareness of the types of films that the general public may not usually get to see in any given year. Of note about these films is that there is a dark and hopeless feeling to most which may well reflect the times we live in at this moment.

1. Citadel

This barren and apocalyptic vibed horror received its world premiere at the prestigious SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas. It has now won the best Irish first feature at the Galway Film Fleadh and the best film award at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival Filmed on location in Glasgow and Dublin, Ciaran Foy’s film tells the story of a housing estate abandoned by society and the young people left there who have turned feral. They kidnap a young girl and are relentlessly pursued by her father. The film looks ferocious and from the trailer it looks like it cost a bit more than it actually did. Irish people may be interested in a film that intentionally or otherwise reflects our society. Maybe a reflection of our very own ghost estates anyone?

Citadel - Trailer. Watch more top selected videos about: The Citadel (film), James Cosmo

2. Limp

This is a film that really interests me. Perhaps the least known of the films on the list but with a trailer as good as this it surely won’t stay that way for long. Directed by Shaun Ryan and staring Eoin Quinn, Limp tells the story of a relationship told through the eyes of a man whose brain has been diseased by loneliness and isolation. A film that has the potential to be that rarity for Irish film these days: a contemporary dark adult drama for a grown up audience. If it lives up to the beautiful trailer, this could be something special. It is expected to be released during the Summer of 2012.

'Limp' Trailer. from Jack Shepherd. on Vimeo.

3. Dollhouse

Ok, so most of you will have heard of Kirsten Sheridan. She is not exactly an unknown in the film world. But her film, set in contemporary Dublin, recently showed at the Berlin Film Festival and marks it as one to look out for. A story of a home invasion by a gang of crazed youths, Sheridan’s film looks set to be big this year. Sheridan is an interesting filmmaker, with Disco Pigs establishing her as such. She was also nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay for In America. Already doing interesting things in Ireland with the setting up of The Factory in Dublin it looks like Dollhouse could be a successful film for her this year.

4. Charlie Casanova

Regular readers of my blog will know that Charlie Casanova featured on my 10 reasons to be optimistic in 2012 blog piece. The terrific trailer and the confident and aggressive feel of the film made me sit up and take notice. This rarely happens for films made in Ireland. Cinema distribution has already been secured in the UK and Ireland. Premiering at the SXSW festival last year before winning awards at the Galway Film Fleadh and then nominated at the IFTAs, Charlie Casanova has the potential to be a hit, but also the potential to divide audiences. And with most films playing it safe in the current climate, this is no bad thing.

5. Grabbers

This film is perhaps best set to be a big international hit when it comes out. Set on the fictional Erin Island off the coast of Ireland, the very witty premise of a town of people who have to be drunk to survive an alien monster invasion is just too good. The wonderfully silly reason is that their blood will be so toxic from the alcohol that they won’t be eaten. Grabbers looks set to carry on the fine tradition of horror comedies such as Tremors and that is no bad comparison to be made. It premiered in Sundance this year and already seems destined to be a cult classic. Released in cinemas in Ireland August 10th.

This is my list. Now it is over to you. Please let me know if any other Irish films out there have your pulses racing this year.

Film Review - Garage (2007)

The description of a film as a masterpiece is to some degree damning it with faint praise. There are maybe only a handful of films that are able to stand up to being repeatedly called a masterpiece in film history. Indisputable classics such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Casablanca are usually rolled out when the lists of the best films ever are made. It is hard to argue with the merits of these films yet there will always be people who will say they are overrated, dated etc. This is a good thing to be honest, the debate on what does or does not constitute a great film keeps alive the discourse that true film fans crave. But there are also films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Star Wars and Drive which are called masterpieces which are not. Good films yes, but masterpieces no. Again this all opinion but the word itself brings a certain expectation. The ease in which the word is used threatens to reduce the effect of the word itself. Use it wisely as it should mean something amazing, a film that transcends its genre or its own National Cinema. In real terms, bring it to the table very rarely.

In terms of our National Cinema the word masterpiece has arguably yet to see the light of day. That is not to say that there have not been great Irish films. Titles such as My Left Foot, The Butcher Boy and The Crying Game are certainly great films but the word masterpiece in an Irish context is still quite elusive. Given the last review I did was the truly dreadful P.S. I Love You, there was a dire need in me to watch something that could banish the memory of that film. The idea that the next film you review could be a masterpiece is one that makes doing this blog a labour of love.

Lenny Abrahmson's film Garage stars Pat Shortt as Josie, a seemingly simple minded man in a small Irish village. He looks after a crumbling garage on the outskirts of the village. At the beginning of the film the only relationships Josie has are the occasional repeat business truck driver and the guys who frequent the locar bar where he drinks. The owner of the garage, Mr. Gallagher (John Keogh) brings a young lad David (Conor Ryan) to help as he extends the opeing hours over the summer. This is the push off point for a quite startling drama

Without wishing to revert to hyperbole, it is hard to get away from the idea that Garage may well the be the best Irish film ever made. Abrahamson and co-writer Mark O'Halloran have fashioned epic drama from the smallest of stories. It is a film about about that most universal and vital of needs: the need to make a real connection with other people. Josie emits a desire to end his loneliness as he goes about the routine of his days. They consist of garage, home, pub and home. Endlessly repeated. There is thehope of connections with the girl who works in the local shop, Carmel (Ann Marie Duff) and the guys who frequent the local pub. But to all these people Josie is essentially invisible and if seen at all it is only with either pitying or mocking eyes. The real potential for friendship is with David and it is this relationship that steers the film towards its climax.

It is a wonderful feeling seeing a film that so deftly avoids all Irish clichés. Not once does the film resort to any paddywackery. This is to be somewhat expected considering one of their previous films, Adam and Paul generally avoided the clichés of a film about drug addicts. Abramson and O'Halloran treat the people in Garage in an incredibly humanistic way. These are real people and their lives matter. Shortt is simply a revelation as Josie, the glue that holds the film together. There is a great supporting cast but this is Josie's story and Shortt breaks your heart here. There are some beautifully judged scenes which would be a shame to spoil here. Suffice to say that they are small moments in the film that reveal aching truths.

Discovering films as good as this is the reason I started this blog. To be unequivical, Garage is a masterpiece of not just Irish film, but of film in general. This is the standard by which Irish film has to be measured by if it is to take its place on a worldwide stage. Now that I have used the M word, it is time put it away. I will wait and dream about the next time I can use it.

Film Review - P.S. I Love You (2007)

The debate about what constitutes an Irish film is likely to go on and on with films like P.S. I Love You being released. This issue has been mentioned in previous posts on this blog and it is interesting to see how broad the definition is. If the money comes from outside Ireland (like it has on films such as Michael Collins) does this mean it is not an Irish film? The debates on where the lines are drawn are perhaps for another time. P.S. I Love You is from a novel by Irish writer Cecelia Ahern and a good portion of the filming takes place in Ireland. For the purposes of this review it will be considered an Irish film. The other important question here is whether the film is any good.

The short answer is a resolute no. The story is a slight but fairly interesting one. It is the story of a couple: Irishman Gerry (Gerard Butler) and Irish American Holly (Hilary Swank). They have been together a few years before Gerry gets sick and dies. The rest, as they say, is history. Only here in true Hollywood style he lives on in the form of 10 letters he has organised to be delivered to Holly at various moments over the following year. Being a film, he helpfully appears in flashbacks as the letters are received. This is the device used to move the story along. But there is so much more to say about this film, I am not sure where to begin.

The accents are a good place. Butler has a certain charm about him but I would really have transplanted the setting of the story to Scotland in order to geographically locate what he is attempting with his accent here. It is genuinely an accent not of this parish. At the opening of the film the couple are having one of those classic film arguments couples have about life, marriage etc. During the argument Gerry uses the word bollocks and Holly points out that he should speak English so she can understand him. She obviously thinks it’s a gaelic word. It is not. It is this level of laziness from the makers of the film that will have you shaking your head. Another example of this is the use of Fairytale of New York at Gerry’s wake. It is the most bizarrely edited version of the song. It sounds like the song was cut for a trailer and never restored properly.

The pity here is that as central ideas for a romantic comedy goes, this one has a lot of potential. But the problem lies with the execution. Director Richard LaGravenese shoots the film in the flattest way imaginable. Even the rolling hills of Ireland so beloved by Americans, have a lifeless feel. But the real problem is with the script. I have not read the book on which the film is based but I would be very surprised if the character of Holly is as hateful as she is in the film. Played with a cold brittleness by Swank, there is just no way that Gerry would fall in love with a woman like this. She is given no redeeming features whatsoever which gives Swank nowhere to go. This is what kills the film really.

There is a strong supporting cast given absolutely nothing to do at all. Actors such as Lisa Kudrow (essentially playing Phoebe from Friends), Kathy Bates and Gina Gershon all seem to stand around looking embarrassed to be there. They even have Harry Connick Jnr play a love interest but instead of being suave and say, a musician! he is a barman and genuinely creepy if not quietly psychotic. Tonally the film is all over the place, with knockabout comedy following a serious and emotional moment. It tries to have its cake and eat it but is unsuccessful at being either funny or tragic.

The funniest scene (unintentionally) of the whole film happens towards the end where Holly, suddenly decides she wants to design shoes for a living. There follows a hilarious shoe designing montage that wouldn’t look out of place in Team America. She is then all of a sudden a shoe designer for a shoe company after doing a quick course. This is all done with a po-faced seriousness that you would nearly call satire if you didn’t know the intention.

Overall this is a remarkably badly made film. The consensus should be to exclude it from the list of Irish films in the future as it will drag our National Cinema down a couple of rungs. It is to some degree easy to have a go at a film like this. But as our own cinema struggles financially it is worth noting that this film made over $150 million at the box office. This is why the Ireland is represented on screen in this way. Do not put your money in your pocket for nonsense like this. Otherwise we will just be served up more. Watch, if you dare.

10 Reasons to be optimistic about Irish Film in 2012

As 2011 turns into 2012 we can reflect on a good year for Irish cinema. Films such as The Guard, Sensation, Parked and One Hundred Mornings were either commercial or critical successes, sometimes both. With finances being tougher than ever in Ireland we could be forgiven for thinking that film could be one of the first casualties of this. Amazingly this may not be the case. Here is a list of reasons why 2012 may well prove to be one of the best years for Irish film both at home and abroad.

1. The Economic Downturn

Yes that’s right, this is a plus. Why? Well, we were never going to be a blockbuster kind of nation. The scale is just too big. With the literary tradition that this country has our cinema should always be about the personal connections. The relationship between people and themes is what we are. Our cinema lost sight of this in the 1990s during The Celtic bleedin’ Tiger and the one massive Hollywood Irish blockbuster we had in Michael Collins. It was decent but compromised, done much better by RTE in The Treaty. At those dizzy heights, with films like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan being filmed here, we dared to dream. But it could never last and that could only be a good thing for our filmmakers. We have already had a film, Conor Horgan’s One Hundred Mornings which has indirectly dealt with the societal financial meltdown that left us with austerity. There will be more and for that we should be thankful.

2. Michael Fassbender

Few who saw Michael Fassbender in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds would have guessed that this German born actor was Irish. Fassbender’s mother is Irish and he grew up in Kerry. With an upper class English accent and fluent German he seemed very far away from the stereotypical Irish actor. Indeed not many would have thought it was the same man that played Bobby Sands in Steve Mc Queens astonishing Hunger such was the transformation. But Irish he is, and with talk of an Oscar nomination for Shame (Steve Mc Queen’s follow up) growing, we have a seriously good actor on our hands here. Hollywood has also taken notice with Fassbender taking the lead role in the new X-Men film earlier this year. The future is bright for Fassbender with a proposed third collaboration with Mc Queen on the way.

3. The Factory

This city has been crying out for a large creative space for filmmakers to work out ideas for scripts, try out actors, test footage etc. and it may well have finally found it with The Factory. A large warehouse on Barrow Street represents what the future of Irish film may well be. An initiative between filmmakers Kirsten Sheridan and John Carney to find a space for creative output, it now encompasses a collaborative space for all filmmakers to try and create smaller budget films with a distinct Irish feel. There are various studios, editing and screening rooms so that films can be taken from the start of the process to post production. There are two films in post production at the moment, John Carney’s Irish ghost story The Rafters and Kirsten Sheridan’s thriller Dollhouse which will screen at the Berlin Film Festival. These are exciting times for The Factory group.

4. Charlie Casanova

Terry Mc Mahon’s new film is one which may well divide audiences. A great reception at the Galway Film Fleadh last year where Mc Mahon took away the first feature prize does not mean that this film won’t garner controversy along the way. The trailer looks, quite frankly, astounding: terrifying, funny and beautifully shot with what may be a career making performance from Emmett Scanlon in the lead role. This film may not be for everyone which is what may set it apart. A film that divides audiences is no bad thing. Great films like Fight Club and The Tree of Life all have their detractors. Films that explore the darkness of the human soul are always to be welcomed especially in a country where to have that exploration this close up is a rarity indeed.

5. A new generation of filmmakers

For years Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan have carried the hopes of a nation when it comes to Irish films competing on the world stage. As they (seemingly) become a little less important to Irish cinema (though they still may have another great film in them) a new generation of filmmakers have been a long time coming. But there seems to be a new energy in Ireland. As well as the directors mentioned above there are directors such as Conor Horgan, brothers Martin and John Michael Mc Donagh, Tom Hall and Juanita Wilson who are coming to the fore. The subject matters of their films are now exploring Irish themes in a far more direct way. Fast disappearing are the naval gazing films of the ‘troubles’. Juanita Wilson’s As If I Am Not There will represent Ireland in the best foreign film category at this year’s Oscars after previously being nominated for her short The Door. There is also Mark O’Connor (Between the Canals) and Carmel Winters (Snap). If the promise of these filmmakers is realised in the next few years we could see some of the best Irish films ever made.

6. Documentaries

These last few years have been an interesting time for Irish documentaries. In the last two years we have had documentaries coming to the fore: Ken Wardrop’s His & Hers, Maya Derrington’s Pyjama Girls, Sé Merry Doyle’s Dreaming the Quiet Man and Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s The Pipe which have all being critically acclaimed. Crucially most have been shown on the big screen with His & Hers being the most successful film ever at the Lighthouse cinema. Add to this the recent big screen outing for Frank Berry’s Ballymun Lullaby and it is obvious that this is an area in Irish film that we may well see a lot more from.

7. The Return Part I (The Lighthouse Cinema)

There is nothing definitive as of yet but there seems to be two bids in to run the Lighthouse cinema site. We can only hope that this comes to a successful end as the Lighthouse cinema is one of the shining lights in Irish and independent cinema in Ireland. It has been sorely missed on the north side of the city and would be a welcome addition again to the Smithfield area. It would be great to have it again alongside the other great independent cinema in Dublin, the IFI. Fingers crossed in 2012.

8. At Swim, Two Birds

This film may not see the light of day until 2013 but it warrants inclusion on the basis of the ambition and scale on show. To be directed by Brendan Gleeson, it is to have a who’s who of Irish talent on screen. Gabriel Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michael Fassbender and Colin Farrell have all signed on. With a cast like this, hopes are indeed high. For Gleeson this is a long time passion project and one that has taken years to put the finances into place. The novel by Flann O’Brien is considered a classic and with funding secured, this film has the potential to be a modern classic.

9. The Return Part II (Lenny Abrahamson)

One of Ireland’s most talented directors will make his return in 2012 with his new film What Richard Did. A modern day story about a young sports star whose life is changed after an act of violence, this film promises to be one of the highlights of 2012. It is hard not to expect too much from Abrahamson when two of his previous features, Adam and Paul and Garage, are considered to be great Irish films (I will be hoping to review all three in a director’s spotlight when What Richard Did reaches the cinema this year). Suffice to say this is one to mark down in your diary.

10. Decrease to Capital Funding to the Irish Film Board

Ok, this is not exactly good news for anyone who has an interest in Irish film. Initially the author thought that funding to the IFB had risen by 4 per cent to €2.54m over the 2011 figure. This has now been kindly clarified by the IFB: the 4 per cent rise is in admin funding only. Capital funding has been reduced by over €3 million from the 2011 figure. This is perhaps expected in worsening economic times. This is not great news of course for filmmakers looking for funding for their respective projects. But with the success of The Guard in 2011 and two Irish films being accepted into Sundance this year (Grabbers and Shadow Dancer) the IFB is working hard at maintaining high standards for the coming year. Time will tell how much this reduction will effect the Irish film industry, but working harder to achieve more with less has become the standard in Ireland these last few years.

Unfortunately this means that the list ends on a slightly down note. But my optimism for Irish film in 2012 is undiminished. For me, beginning the year with two Irish films in a major festival is a great beginning to a very interesting year for Irish film. I would like to hear other people’s thoughts on this as I believe it is important to debate the good and the bad in this area. Of course, like anything to do with film, luck will be needed to help makes these various projects a success. For all the optimism for 2012 there is also the chance that the ones listed above will not be quite as good or successful as we hope they would be. But I am equally sure there will be something that I have not mentioned here which could come out and be a success. Let me know what you think that will be below.