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"I'm going after the soldier that killed Carol." "The man you want is working for the police." Quiver Distr. has revealed an official trailer for Dead Shot, another new action thriller to enjoy. But this one finally has something unique to offer - it's set on the dark and paranoid streets of 1970's London, with some extra gritty chase scenes. Opening in the US on VOD in August. A retired Irish paramilitary witnesses the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife by an Sas officer. After outwitting the government, now wounded, and presumed dead, he escapes, taking his revenge to the streets. It looks like he catches up with the killer and might have a change of heart. "Raw and suspenseful, Dead Shot is an adrenaline-fueled thriller that will leave audiences weighing up the true cost of revenge." Just hope it's good. Starring Aml Ameen, Colin Morgan, Máiréad Tyers, Dara Devaney,...

Dead Shot is a film directed by Charles and Thomas Guard. It stars Colin Morgan and Aml Ameen and features the always grateful presence of Mark Strong.

A film that takes itself quite seriously in a revenge romp with political undertones in Ireland.

Dead Shot Storyline

In the 1970s, a member of the Ira takes over an Active Service Unit in London after his wife is accidentally shot dead in Ireland. The unit’s mission is to cause chaos and destruction, while his personal aim is to hunt down his wife’s killer — an Sas captain, who is also hunting him.

Movie Review

A good opportunity to revisit the thriller genre with a well-constructed cinematic flavor and with intention, characters and a whole story to tell. It has a lot of style thanks to the setting and the climate of instability in which the plot is framed.

Dead Shot knows...

It is set to debut at Galway Film Fleadh next month.

The UK’s Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales for The Sparrow, the debut feature from Irish screenwriter and filmmaker Michael Kinirons.

The title is based and shot in West Cork, and follows a troubled teen who is involved in a tragic accident, keeps it a secret, and must deal with the consequences of his lie as they unfold before his eyes. Kinirons also wrote the screenplay.

The Sparrow will premiere at Ireland’s Galway Film Fleadh (July 5-10).

It stars newcomer Ollie West, David O’Hara, Éanna Hardwicke, Aisling O’Sullivan,...

It is the debut feature from Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney, whose short film Drifting starring Paul Mescal premiered in Galway last year.

Dublin-based Wildcard Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Irish feature drama Lakelands, with a cinema release scheduled for next year.

The film is the debut feature from Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney, whose short film Drifting starring Paul Mescal premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh last year.

Lakelands is currently filming on location in the Irish midlands town of Granard, and centres on the aftermath of an attack on a night out, as a young...

Arracht is an Irish-language production set during the Great Famine and it is perhaps the first film since Das Boot that caused me to hate the English. Yet Tom Sullivan’s film is not politically charged Anglophobia. Rather, it is a moody character drama that believes all people are capable of evil and violence.

Our focaliser is Coleman Sharkey (Donall O Healai), an Irish fisherman who lives with his wife and infant son in a stone cottage on the Connemara coast. Life is hard for the Sharkey family, yet their bond brings much warmth to their harsh, rural existence. However, the encroaching potato blight makes their position untenable, so the fair-minded Coleman arranges a meeting to discuss the rates with his English landlord, played with simmering haughtiness by Michael McElhatton.

Tense and ambiguous, their meeting at the landlord’s dimly lit estate is the best scene in the film. Much...

The Irish Film & Television Academy is sending Tom Sullivan’s Arracht as its entry to the 2021 International Oscar race.

The Irish-language movie was selected by a committee featuring Lenny Abrahamson, Ciaran Hinds, Eimear Noone, Macdara Kelleher, Fionnula Flanagan and David Flynn. IFTA CEO Áine Moriarty chaired.

Set in 1845 during The Great Hunger, the film follows a fisherman who takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. It stars Dónall Ó Héalai with Dara Devaney, Michael McElhatton and newcomer Saise Ní Chúinn. The film premiered at last year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

It was produced by Cúán Mac Conghail for Macalla Teoranta with support from Screen Ireland, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and TG4 as part of the Cine 4 scheme, a new initiative to develop original feature films in the Irish language. It is distributed in Ireland by Break Out Pictures, which will release in spring...

The Irish Film and Television Academy has selected Tom Sullivan’s Irish-language feature “Arracht” as Ireland’s entry for the 2021 Oscars’ best international feature film category.

The film is set in 1845 on the eve of the Irish famine. Fisherman Colmán Sharkey takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier in the Napoleonic wars, arrives just ahead of “the blight” that eventually wipes out the country’s potato crop, leading to the death and displacement of millions. Patsy’s subsequent actions set Colmán on a path that will take him to the edge of survival, and sanity, until he encounters an abandoned young girl who gives him a reason to live. But Colmán cannot escape the darkness of his past.

The film stars Dónall Ó Héalai, alongside Dara Devaney, Michael McElhatton, and newcomer Saise Ní Chúinn.

The film world premiered at the 2019 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival,...

Written and directed by Tom Sullivan, the film is set on the eve of the Irish potato famine.

Irish-language feature Arracht has been selected by the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) as Ireland’s entry for the best international feature film category at the Academy Awards.

Told almost entirely in the Irish language, Arracht debuted to strong reviews at the Tallinn Black Nights film festival in 2019. The film is set in 1845 on the eve of the Irish potato famine (known as The Great Hunger), when a fisherman takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. The stranger,...

Best film nominees separated into 2019 and 2020 categories.

Tom Sullivan’s Great Famine drama Arracht and Paddy Breathnach’s homelessness story Rosie lead the film nominations at the 2020 Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards.

Arracht picked up 11 nominations from 15 feature film categories; with Rosie scoring nine.

Full IFTA 2020 nominations below

IFTA is finalising plans for a virtual 2020 awards ceremony in September; there will be no physical IFTA awards ceremony until April 2021. This year’s best film nominees have been split into two categories: five titles are nominated for best film 2019 and a further five have been nominated for best film...

Dara Devaney as Finky. Dathaí Keane: 'I knew a feature film would have to have a strong lead, so I wrote a character-driven piece for Dara' Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights Irish director Dathaí Keane made his feature film debut in the First Feature competition at Tallinn Black Nights film festival with Irish-language film Finky. Starring Dara Devaney - who also features in Arracht (read more about the scheme involving the two films here) - Finky sees its central character go on an off-kilter odyssey as he tries to come to terms with guilt. It's a journey that sees him run into physical as well as emotional trouble, after he leaves Ireland on a whim for Scotland. Keane is bilingual, and wrote the film in Irish, with co-writer Diarmuid de Faoite.

The writer/director says: "It was worth doing it that way because you end up having something...

Dónall Ó Héalai, right, with Eoin O Dubhghaill. Tom Sullivan on Héalai: 'He nailed it physically and that just raised the bar for everybody, including myself' Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights Tom Sullivan's Arracht (Monster) - which had its world premiere at Tallinn Black Nights film festival is set against the backdrop of the Great Famine and focuses on peasant farmer Colmán (Dónall Ó Héalai) who finds himself living on his wits and caring for a young girl (Saise Ní Chuinn) after his decision to take in a naval man with a murky past (Dara Devaney) has unexpected consequences.

Shot in the Irish language - and you can read more of what Sullivan told me about the scheme that developed it here - it's a moody and elegant film that sees the actor-turned-writer/director step up from shorts to features.

Director Tom Sullivan: 'Pace is the most important thing...

Dara Devaney and Dónall Ó Héalai as Patsy and Colmán in Arracht Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights Irish filmmaking had a strong presence at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival this year, with Tom Sullivan's atmospheric Arracht (Monster) screening in the main competition and Dathaí Keane's psychologically twisty Finky appearing in the first feature slate. Both films are in the Irish language and are the first to be produced under the Cine4 Development Scheme.

Keane - who is bilingual in Irish and English - explained the initiative. He said: "It's a scheme that has been set up by the Irish broadcaster TG4. Alan Esselmont, whose the head of TG4, decided that they wanted to diversify and get into filmmaking. So in conjunction with Screen Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, they funded a scheme whereby a certain amount of scripts would be developed and two of those...

Float Like a Butterfly International Trailer Carmel Winters‘ Float Like a Butterfly (2018) international movie trailer stars Hazel Doupe, Dara Devaney, Aidan O’Hare, Hilda Fay, and Lalor Roddy. Float Like a Butterfly‘s plot synopsis: “From the producers of Once and Sing Street, Float Like A Butterfly is a powerful and timely story of [...]

Continue reading: Float Like A Butterfly (2018) International Movie Trailer: Hazel Doupe Fights for the Respect of Her People in Ireland...

"Let her fight. Let her do what she's born to do."

I’ve got a trailer here for a great looking Irish boxing film called Float Like a Butterfly. The movie comes from the producers who previously brought us the wonderful films Once and Sing Street.

The story for the film revolves around a 15-year-old girl from Ireland who dreams of becoming a champion boxer. As you might expect she faces some obstacles on her journey but she finds the strength and courage to fulfill her destiny.

Here’s the synopsis:

Float Like a Butterfly is a powerful and timely story of a girl's fight for freedom and belonging. In a gender-reversal of classic film Billy Elliot, 15-year-old Frances has to fight for the right to fight back. Raised in roadside camps in rural Ireland, Frances wants to champion her people inside the boxing ring and out, like her idol Muhammad Ali.

"Let her fight. Let her do what she's born to do." West End Films UK has released the first official UK trailer for an indie drama titled Float Like a Butterfly, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this fall. From writer/director Carmel Winter, this Irish film is "a gender-reversal of classic film Billy Elliot", about a 15-year-old girl raised in camps in rural Ireland who wants to become a champion boxer and fights against all odds to prove her determination and might. Hazel Doupe stars as Frances, with a cast including Dara Devaney, Aidan O'Hare, Hilda Fay, Lalor Roddy, and Johnny Collins. From the producers of Once and Sing Street, the film is about finding the strength and courage to carve out our own destiny. "Our sense of belonging is precious, so how can we balance that need with our need to be free?" First look below.

Exclusive: Here’s a nice first trailer for Irish boxing drama Float Like A Butterfly, which picked up the Fipresci Discovery Prize at the Toronto Film Festival.

The second film from writer-director Carmel Winters (Snap), Float was filmed on location in West Cork and follows 15-year-old Frances who has been raised in roadside camps in rural Ireland and wants to become a boxing champion like her idol Muhammad Ali. However, she must overcome cultural and familial hurdles to achieve her dreams.

The film, which is repped for world sales by WestEnd Films, also won the Audience Award in Cork where it had its Irish premiere in November. Starring are Hazel Doupe (Ripper Street), Dara Devaney (Camelot), Aidan O’Hare (The Wind That Shakes The Barley), Lalor Roddy (Hunger), Hilda Fay (The Cured), Packy Lee (Peaky Blinders) and newcomer Johnny Collins.

Producers are Martina Niland (Sing Street) for Port Pictures and...

A lot can change in five to ten years and even more can unfortunately remain the same. When we first meet the Joyce family little Frances’ age has yet to hit double digits, her younger brother Patrick still clinging to their mom’s side. Their band of traveling Irish sing their folk songs and drink their stout, enjoying the freedom they live to protect — the same freedom outsiders love to destroy by lobbing racist and classist bigotry onto them as though they were savages. Michael Joyce (Dara Devaney) puts Frances on his shoulders to give the ol’ Muhammad Ali one-two while declaring her the greatest ever when a local Sergeant (Aidan O’Hare) arrives to cause trouble. The dust settles to show Michael leaving in chains, his wife tragically dead.

Writer/director Carmel Winters then fast-forwards the aforementioned span of time to show Frances (Hazel Doupe) has only grown stronger...

Exclusive: Check out the first footage of Irish writer-director Carmel Winters’ (Snap) Toronto-bound boxing drama Float Like A Butterfly.

WestEnd Films handles sales on the pic about Irish Traveller Francis who has to fight for the right to pursue her passion…boxing.

The film stars Hazel Doupe (Ripper Street), Dara Devaney (Camelot), Aidan O’Hare (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Lalor Roddy (Hunger) and Hilda Fay. Producers are Martina Niland (Sing Street) and David Collins (A Dark Song). Cathleen Dore (Viva) is co-producer.

The feature is executive-produced by Lesley McKimm for The Irish Film Board, which financed the film in association with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and RTÉ Television. Crew members include editor Julian Ulrichs (Sing Street) and DoP Michael Lavelle.

As revealed yesterday, the film will get its world premiere in the festival’s Discovery Strand.

Leonardo Dicaprio and Spotlight also pick up prizes from the Irish Film and Television Academy.Scoll down for full list of winners

Lenny Abrahamson’s Room swept the Ifta Awards for Film and Drama at a ceremony in Dublin last night, winning seven trophies.

The film, about a mother and son kept captive in a bunker, won best film, best director, best screenplay, best score and best editing. It also picked up awards for best sound and best international actress for Brie Larson, who won the Oscar for best actress in February.

The award means that Room producer Element Pictures has won six best film awards in the 13 years the Ifta’s have been running.

Liam Neeson was in Dublin to receive the Ifta Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award – recognition for his celebrated 30 year career in cinema. Neeson was presented the award by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, with tributes...

St Petersburg’s Efp showcase will features eight titles this year.

The Swiss gay docu-drama The Circle is among eight European films being shown as part of European Film Promotion’s (Efp) third edition of its Westwind showcase in St Petersburg, October 21-25.

The line-up includes: the Spanish comedy Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, which will be accompanied in person by its director David Trueba; Tom Collins’ Irish drama The Gift, attended by actors Dara Devaney and Paul Griffin; Montenegrin writer-director Nikola Vukčević’s revenge thriller/melodrama The Kids From Marx and Engels Street; Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo’s dreamlike odyssey Concrete Night; and German feature debutant Sebastian Ko’s We Monsters which had its North American premiere in the Discovery sidebar in Toronto this month.

The other films programmed to screen in the Hotel Angleterre cinema are Pol Cruchten’s drama Never Die Young and Daniel Dencik’s historical drama Gold Coast as well as...

The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland (Sdgi) is honored to present the Foras Na Gaeilge Award to Irish director and producer Tom Collins in recognition for Outstanding Contribution in the Irish language in Film and TV. Love/Hate writer Stuart Carolan will present the award to Tom. Hailed for his Irish language films Kings (2007) and the award winning film Hush-a-Bye-Baby (1992), most recently Collins has had enormous success with the award-winning Irish noir crime drama An Bronntanas, which was adapted for a five part thriller series for TG4 that has now been picked up by French distributor Lagardère Entertainment. Directed by Collins and starring Dara Devaney (Na Cloigne), Owen McDonnell (Single Handed) and John Finn (Cold Case), An Bronntanas tells the story of the crew of a local independent lifeboat in Connemara who find over a million euro worth of drugs on an abandoned fishing boat.  Speaking about the award, Tom.

Celtic crime thriller was Ireland’s Oscar submission.

Paris-based Lagardère Entertainment has snapped up distribution rights to Irish crime thriller An Bronntanas (The Gift) and will be selling the five-part miniseries at Miptv in Cannes next week.

The film version of An Bronntanas was Ireland’s submission to the Best Foreign-Language category of the Oscars and won the jury’s special award at last month’s Boston Irish Film Festival.

When the series was broadcast on Ireland’s TG4 at the end of last year it scored a six-fold audience increase among 15-34s

Directed by Tom Collins, and produced by Ciarán Ó Cofaigh of Rosg and Tom Collins, An Bronntanas stars Dara Devaney, John Finn, Owen McDonnell, Michelle Beamish, Pól Ó Gríofa, Charlotte Bradley and Januscz Sheagall. The script was written by Joe O’Byrne, Paul Walker, Eoin McNamee and Tom Collins.

The film was primarily shot in Irish in Connemara, County Galway...

Actress Saoirse Ronan and director Jim Sheridan among selection committee to submit thriller based around a lifeboat crew.

The Irish Film & Television Academy (Ifta) has submitted An Bronntanas as Ireland’s submission for the Foreign Language category at the 87th Academy Awards.

Directed by Tom Collins, and produced by Ciarán Ó Cofaigh of Rosg and Tom Collins, An Bronntanas stars Dara Devaney, John Finn , Owen McDonnell, Michelle Beamish, Pól Ó Gríofa, Charlotte Bradley and Januscz Sheagall. The script was written by Joe O’Byrne, Paul Walker, Eoin McNamee and Tom Collins.

The film was primarily shot in Irish in Connemara, County Galway by cinematographer Cian de Buitléar. The film premiered as the closing film of the Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year.

An Bronntanas (The Gift) is a contemporary thriller set against the backdrop of a local independent lifeboat crew working off the coast of Connemara, on the west of Ireland. The rescue...

Terry McMahon’s Patrick’s Day and Gerard Barrett’s Glassland have jointly picked up the Best Irish Feature Award at the Galway Film Fleadh, which closed last night (July 13).

The annual awards ceremony took place before the screening of the festival’s closing film An Bronntanas.

Patrick’s Day world premiered at SXSW earlier this year. It tells the story of a schizophrenic young man (Moe Dunford) who tries to build a relationship with a flight attendant. Barrett’s follow up to Pilgrim Hill stars Toni Collette, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter and centres around alcoholism.

The festival’s Galway Hooker Awards were given to Irish actor Brenda Fricker, whose latest film A Long Way From Home was screened during t festival, and to animation powerhouse Brown Bag Films in recognition of their success as Irish animators on the international stage, including such successes as Doc McStuffins and two Oscar-nominated shorts.

In other awards...

The Galway Film Fleadh announced today the five nominees for the Bingham Ray New Talent Award. They are: producer, Anne Marie Naughton for "The Canal;" actor, Moe Dunford for "Patrick's Day;" director, Niall Heery for "Gold;" actor, Tara Breathnach for "A Nightingale Falling;" and actor, Dara Devaney for "An Bronntanas." The winner will be announced at the closing night awards ceremony, which takes place in the Town Hall Theatre. The new premieres announced are for "Patrick's Day," "Gold," "A Nightingale Falling" and "The Canal." - Directed by Terry McMahon, "Patrick's Day" follows the story of Patrick (Moe Dunford), a warm-hearted 26-year-old virgin schizophrenic, who falls in love with a soon-to-be alcoholic air-hostess, Karen. - A shocking journey into the unknown, Ivan Kavanagh's "The Canal" follows a family slowly growing a part due to suspected infidelity and nightmares of an evil presence that might live within their house. - Ifta-winning Niall Heery's new.