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Every year the Belfast Film Festival makes the effort to put some truly independent small scale Irish productions on the map, and this year’s The Spin, directed by first-timer Michael Head (whom some viewers will be familiar with from his acting work), is one of the better ones. It follows best friends and record shop proprietors Dermot (Brenock O’Connor) and Elvis (Owen Colgan) as they embark on a cross-country quest to save their business and the former’s relationship with his daughter, and though the story is simple, the likeable characters and lively banter make it an enjoyable watch.

Like many entrepreneurs who do what they do for love more than for money, our heroes have found themselves struggling to make rent, and their magnificently attired but empathy-challenged landlady Sadie (Tara Lynne O’Neill) is threatening to turn Boneyard Records into a nail salon. Fortunately for them, they’ve learned of a record.

Paddy Duffy’s The UnHolylands starring James Nesbitt is among the world premieres at the 24th Belfast Film Festival (October 31-November 9).

Duffy’s coming-of-age comedy sees two brothers attempt one last house party before their university days are over. It also stars Ciaran McCourt, Peter Jeffries and Sean Daly.

Further world premieres include Michael Head’s comedy The Spin starring Derry Girls’ Tara Lynne O’Neill and Will McConnell’s experimental drama Beautiful And Loud And Clear.

Competition

Eight films comprise Belfast’s third annual international competition including Xiaoxuan Jiang’s To Kill A Mongolian Horse, winner of best directing and...

On Tuesday, October 17, 2023, at 7:00 Pm, BBC Two will present Season 12, Episode 3 of “Celebrity Antiques Road Trip.” In this episode, two actors from the popular comedy series “Derry Girls,” Tara Lynne O’Neill and Ian McElhinney, are on an adventure. They will be driving a sporty 1970s Mg Bgt in Aberdeenshire.

While on the road, they have some fun by pretending to be cows, but their real mission is to find valuable antiques. Each of them has 400 pounds to spend, and they receive guidance from experts Paul Laidlaw and Natasha Raskin Sharp.

If you enjoy watching famous personalities searching for hidden treasures and quirky antique items, this episode is for you.

Make sure to tune in at 7:00 Pm for “Celebrity Antiques Road Trip” and see which of the “Derry Girls” actors strikes gold with their antique discoveries.

Release Date & Time 700 Pm Tuesday 17 October 2023 on BBC Two

Celebrity Antiques Road Trip...

It’s 1994, and the people of Northern Ireland are nearly three decades into a violent conflict known as the Troubles. Civilians — thousands of which died during the fray — are generally divided between Protestant unionists, who want to keep the country under United Kingdom control, and Irish Catholics, who call for a united Ireland. Day-to-day life in Derry involve armed military checkpoints, customary bomb disposals, and the constant hum of danger. Family members are in prison. Others are dead. An end to the Troubles is in sight, but for the teenage girls attending Our Lady Immaculate College, this is the only life they’ve ever known. That it may come to an end right as they graduate only instills further anxiety over the responsibilities of adulthood.

This is “Derry Girls” — or, at least, a version of “Derry Girls” if viewed through a popular storytelling vantage point; a version where the pain,...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Season 3 of “Derry Girls.”

Season 3 of “Derry Girls” opens with a dramatic montage set to the tune of uilleann pipes, depicting Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla McCool (Louisa Clare Harland), Clare Devlin (“Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan), James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn) and Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) leaning pensively against walls, playing soccer and doing cartwheels, interspersed with shots of burning cars and soldiers carrying guns. It’s the sort of montage that belongs in a period piece about growing up in Ireland during the ’90s — and, as it’s revealed, the kind that Erin, Orla, Clare, James and Michelle want to be remembered for, as they’ve created it themselves using James’ video camera. “They told us we were young,” Erin intones in a comically ponderous voiceover, “yet we understood the enormity of it. We understood what was at stake. Our fear was replaced with something altogether more terrifying…...

A first look at the third and final season of “Derry Girls” is finally here — and just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has unveiled the first Season 3 still and trailer for the show, which garnered global popularity via Netflix. The drama is created and written by Lisa McGee, who mined her own experiences growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

While Season 1 observed the gang navigating their teens in 1990s Derry against a backdrop of The Troubles, Season 2 charted the group navigating their parents, parties, love interests and school against the backdrop of a precarious peace process. In Season 3 — which still doesn’t have a launch date on Channel 4 — viewers will see that while Northern Ireland is growing up, “this gang of eejits certainly aren’t anytime soon.”

“While there’s hope in the air that The Troubles may finally be over,...

“Derry Girls,” the popular Channel 4 comedy set in 1990s Northern Ireland, is ending after its upcoming Season 3, creator Lisa McGee announced on Twitter on Thursday.

Season 3, which is heading into production, will mark the end of the show, but a trio of seasons was always the plan, McGee said.

“It was always the plan to say goodbye after three series. ‘Derry Girls’ is a coming of age story; following five ridiculous teenagers as they slowly…very slowly…start to become adults, while around them the place they call home starts to change too and Northern Ireland enters a new, more hopeful phase — which was a small, magical window of time,” McGee wrote. “‘Derry Girls’ is a love letter to the place I come from and the people who shaped me. It has been an honour to write it and I will be forever proud of everything it’s achieved.