All Things Irish

Irish Films of 2025

From podcasts to in-depth discussion and reviews, from docs to dramas, on this page we take a look at the Irish films being released in 2025.

Four Mothers

(DIR: Darren Thornton  • WRI: Colin Thornton, Darren Thornton)

In cinemas 4th April 2025.

A struggling novelist who is forced to take care of three eccentric older women – and his own mother – over the course of one chaotic weekend in Dublin.

CAST: Fionnula Flanagan, James McArdle, Niamh Cusack, Adam Fergus

Fréwaka

(WRI/DIR: Aislinn Clarke) Premiered at BFI London Film Festival in October 2024.

In cinemas 28th March 2025.A home care worker, Shoo, who, haunted by a personal tragedy, is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman who fears the neighbours as much as she fears the Na Sídhe – sinister sprites who she believes abducted her decades before. As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old woman’s paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors from her own past.

CAST: Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya

September Says

(WRI/DIR: Ariane Labed)

In cinemas 19th February 2025.This is a co-production involving Sackville Film & TV Productions and Element Pictures. Sisters July and September are thick as thieves, though very different – September is protective and distrustful of others, while July is open to and curious about the world. Their dynamic is a concern to their single mum, Sheela, who is unsure what to do with them. When September is suspended from their school, July is left to fend for herself and begins to assert her own independence – which does not go unnoticed by September. Tension among the three women builds when they take refuge in an old holiday home in Ireland, where July finds her bond with September shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand or control – and a series of surreal encounters test the family to their limit.

CAST: Mia Tharia, Rakhee Thakrar, Pascale Kann

Bring Them Down

(DIR/WRI: Christopher Andrews)

In cinemas 7th February 2025.Set in the wild landscape of the West of Ireland, the film follows an Irish shepherd who is drawn into violent conflict with a neighbouring farm when his sheep are massacred by unknown men.

CAST: Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott

Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story

(WRI/DIR: Sinéad O’Shea)

In cinemas 31st January 2025.A 93-year-old Irish writer Edna O’Brien recounts her controversial life, novels, love affairs, and stardom through personal journals read by actress Jessie Buckley, with perspectives from writers like Gabriel Byrne and Walter Mosley.

CAST: Jessie Buckley, Declan Conlon, Gabriel Byrne

The Damned

(WRI: Jamie Hannigan, Thordur Palsson • DIR: Thordur Palsson)

In cinemas 10th January 2025.A 19th-century widow has to make an impossible choice when, during an especially cruel winter, a foreign ship sinks off the coast of her Icelandic fishing village.

CAST: Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Lewis Gribben

We Live in Time

(DIR: John Crowley • WRI: Nick Payne)

In cinemas 1st January 2025.An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together, in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.

CAST: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney 

 Powerful and life-affirming, this richly complex film tracks one couple’s journey as they navigate marriage, identity, and parenthood under the looming shadow of illness. 

Titles to Watch out For:

Dreamtown

(WRI/DIR: Steven McKenna)

Premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Mickey Richards, a delusional, aging rocker who never realised his dreams, lives a care-free, ‘rock and roll’ life. Spending his nights in bars bragging about his glory days to a group of youths. And then there’s Gina Fox, the young bartender…  Mickey’s life has only amounted to a failed marriage and a neglected relationship with his musically talented son, Alan. Mickey decides it’s time he shows Alan what he’s been missing. When Alan is introduced to Gina through a decorating job at her house, it means competition for Gina’s heart. This, and Mickey’s attempts to impress Alan, only creates an even bigger wedge between the two of them.  It’s time for Mickey to wake up, and stop living in that Dreamtown.

CAST: Anthony Murphy, Cian Hyland & Michelle Lucy

Amongst the Wolves

(DIR: Mark O’Connor • WRI: Luke McQuillan, Mark O’Connor)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Danny, an ex-soldier homeless in Dublin, meets Will, a teen fleeing a drug gang. Their encounter forces them to confront their pasts while navigating the harsh realities they face.

CAST: Luke McQuillan, Daniel Fee, Aidan Gillen, Jade Jordan, Helen Behan, Louise Bourke, Sello, Dane Whyte O’Hara, Casey Walsh, Paul Ritchie

Amongst the Wolves crafts an unromantic narrative centred around the visceral and callous reality of Dublin City, touching on themes of homelessness, immigration, and the scars left by trauma.

HOME: The Story of Zak Moradi

(WRI/DIR: Trevor Whelan)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 12th July 2024.HOME: The Story of Zak Moradi follows the inspiring journey from Zak’s childhood in a Kurdish refugee camp to his significant role in the Irish community. This film highlights his integration into Irish society, illustrating how Kurdish and Irish cultures merged in his life. It showcases his contributions as a hurling player for Leitrim, and his efforts against racism, through work with organisations like SARI and the One Foundation.

Featuring: Zak Moradi, Mokthar Moradi, Halala Moradi, Dilman Ahmedi, Peter Power, Rahman Qadri, Akbar Qadri, Ahuoo Qadri, Akram Mohammed Mahmoud, Omid Hama Ali Rashid, Gohar Moradi, Safar Moradi

Spilt Milk

(DIR: Brian Durnin • WRI: Cara Loftus)Set in Dublin in 1984, Split Milk follows an 11 year-old boy, who dreams of becoming a great detective like his TV hero Kojak.

CAST: Alisha Weir, Danielle Galligan, Laurence O’Fuarain

The Song Cycle

(WRI/DIR: Nick Kelly)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Veteran musician and filmmaker Nick Kelly sets off to cycle from his home in Dublin to the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, carrying all his gear on his bike and playing shows en route, to prove it’s possible to tour live music without driving. He’s accompanied by his long-suffering friend and musical partner Seán Millar, who tracks Nick’s progress by bus, and joins him onstage each night. The day they finally played Glastonbury Nick turned 60, officially outliving his famous politician father.

CAST: Nick Kelly, Seán Millar, Kevin Anderson, Pauline Bourdon, James Dove, Tom Dunne, Dermot Lynch, Olivia O’Leary, Claire O’Neill, Alexia Kelly

I See a Darkness

(DIR: Katherine Waugh, Fergus Daly • WRI: Katherine Waugh)

Premièred at Cork International Film FestivalExplores a particular history of image production and its associated use in atomic testing. Advances in science and engineering have created wondrous things but quite often the same processes can be inimical to nature.

Woken

(DIR/WRI: Alan Friel)

Premiered at DIFF 2024.Set on a remote island in the North Sea, at the dawn of a new evolutionary phase for humanity, Woken confronts the great existential question on the possibility of man to replace God, after having destroyed nature and consequence himself.

CAST: Maxine Peake, Erin Kellyman, Ivanno Jeremiah, Corrado Invernizzi, Oscar Coleman and Peter McDonald

Cave of Wonders

(DIR: Neasa Ní Chainaín • WRI: Neasa Ní Chainaín, David Rane, Etienne Essery)The words ‘tomb of Alexander’ draw one of the world’s foremost archaeologists and a team of experts, on 6 expeditions to uncover the truth. The stakes are high in this breathtaking game of strategy as they face fatwas, military interventions and the stoic bedrock of the ancient Middle-East. One man, code-named ‘The Inventor’ holds the exact coordinates of the tomb entrance – will he give up the secret?

Tukdam: A Question Of Life And Death

(DIR: Donagh Coleman)In what Tibetan Buddhists call “tukdam”, advanced meditators die in a consciously controlled manner. Though dead according to our biomedical standards, they often stay sitting upright in meditation; remarkably, their bodies remain fresh and lifelike, without signs of decay for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. Following ground-breaking scientific research into tukdam, and taking us into intimate death stories of Tibetan meditators, the film juxtaposes scientific and Tibetan perspectives as it tries to unravel the mystery of tukdam.

The Swallow

(WRI/DIR: Tadhg O’Sullivan)

Premiered at DIFF 2024.In a small house by the sea, a woman begins a letter to an unknown correspondent. Surrounded by the books, mementoes and clutter of a life lived in one place, her home exposed to the waves of a rising ocean, she writes about the history of lost art. Considering what has been lost, and wondering about her own desire to hold on, she sets out on a meditation on memory, and art’s aspiration to immortality.

CAST: Brenda Fricker

The Flats

(WRI/DIR: Alessandra Celesia)Joe and his Belfast neighbours reenact childhood memories from the violent Troubles era in their Catholic district, exploring the collective experiences that shaped their lives and community.

CAST: Jolene Burns, Joe McNally, Sean Parker

Horseshoe

(DIR: Edwin Mullane, Adam O’Keefe • WRI: Adam O’Keefe)On the wind-blasted coast of North Sligo, four estranged siblings return to their ageing childhood home to decide the fate of the family estate. Rammed into the family home for the first time in decades, estranged siblings Jeremiah, Niall, Carrie and Evan return home in the wake of their father’s death to decide the fate of the family estate. Burdens and grudges, fears and insecurities rise to the surface as the ghost of Colm Canavan continues to taunt them from beyond the grave. As the weekend progresses and failures to agree rack up, they cajole, bicker, reunite and divide as the family’s myriad skeletons come tumbling out of the proverbial closet.

CAST: John Connors, Seán Doyle, Mary Murray, Carolyn Bracken, Neill Fleming, Jed Murray, Eric O’Brien, Lalor Roddy

Sharp Corner

(DIR: Jason Buxton • WRI: Jason Buxton, Russell Wangersky)

Premiered at TIFF.A dedicated family man becomes obsessed with saving the lives of the car accident victims on the sharp corner in front of his house – an obsession that could cost him everything.

CAST: Cobie Smulders, Ben Foster, Gavin Drea

The People Before

(DIR: Steve Reeves • WRI: Mike Oughton)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Jess and her husband, desperate for a fresh start, jump at the chance to buy a charming old house in the idyllic Suffolk countryside. But, the warm welcome they expect never comes. The tight-lipped locals harbour a dark secret about Maple House, and Jess soon realises their dream home might be a grave mistake. Whispers of a chilling past and unsettling events begin to unravel, revealing a haunting truth about the house’s history. As the menacing shadows of Maple House close in, Jess must confront the sinister situation before it’s too late. Will the family survive the nightmare they’ve unknowingly moved in to?

CAST: Imelda May, Liz White, Ray Fearon, John Thomson, Frances Barber, Jake Siame, Craig Russell, Mika Simmons, Mark Stobbart, Richard Durden

Froggie

(DIR: Luke Morgan • WRI: Jake Morgan, Luke Morgan)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Brothers Fiachra and Tadgh peaked at the age of 7 when they appeared on the TV singing with their homemade puppet, “Froggie”. 25 years later, they are still singing the same ol’ song – until one day, Froggie is stolen.

CAST: Seán T. Ó Meallaigh, Carrie Crowley, Jemma Curran

The Alexander Complex

(DIR: Neasa Ní Chianáin)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.The Alexander Complex unravels a bizarre tale of intrigue, politics and money as an international group of “gentlemanly explorers”, all with pseudonyms to protect their identities, come together in a quest to solve the mystery of the missing tomb of Alexander the Great.

An Taibhse

(WRi/DIR: John Farrelly)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.An Taibhse unfolds in the bleak landscape of post-famine Ireland. The narrative centres around Éamon and his daughter, Máire, who undertake the care of a remote Georgian Mansion through the harsh winter.

CAST: Tom Stafford, Livvy Hill, Anthony Murphy, Tom Kerrisk

TerraForma

(WRI/DIR:Kevin Brennan & Laurence Durkin)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.TerraForma is the story of how the remote desert island of Ascension was ‘terraformed’ by Victorian scientists into a tropical paradise.

Laoch: Defy the Odds

(DIR: Stephan Mazurek • WRI: Stephan Mazurek, Liz Sung)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Hailing from the gritty streets of Drogheda, Ireland, a powerlifter with dwarfism battling health challenges and societal expectations, embarks on a quest to conquer the sport of powerlifting by breaking world records and shattering prejudices.

CAST: Thomas McCague

Are We One

(DIR: Dónal Ó Céilleachair )

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.A documentary tracing the transmission of Zen meditation through the life’s work of 90 year-old Irish-American Jesuit Zen Master Robert Kennedy – and his successors and students – in a contemporary exploration of interfaith dialogue on the common ground of human experience. STARRING: Robert Kennedy SJ, Amy Yee, Krishna Das, Miriam Healy, Ken Byalin, Ellen Birx, Joan Halifax, Charles Birx, Noel Brennan, Dr Cuca Montecel, Inge Von Woebeser-Hopfner, Dr Mónica Maher, Mary Laheen

Fidil Ghorm

(DIR: Anne McCabe • WRI:Patricia Forde)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Molly is a ten-year-old girl who believes that if she learns to play the fiddle like her dad and wins the All-Ireland Music championship, her father will wake from his coma. CAST: Edith Lawlor, Barry McGovern, Siobhán O’Kelly

Kiss of the Con Queen

(DIR: Tom Waller • WRI: Eoin O’Brien)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.A striving actor is targeted by an ingenious and sadistic scammer, terrorizing the industry, impersonating Hollywood elites.

CAST: Eoin O’Brien, Patrick Bergin, Ravi Patel

Dead Men’s Money

(WRI/DIR: Paul Kennedy)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.When Young Henry’s wealthy uncle starts courting “the Widow” Maureen Tweed, he starts to fear that he’ll be written out of Old Henry’s will. Conspiring with his wife, Pauline – and a chauffeur with a chequered past, known as Gerry the Wheels – Young Henry puts a plan in motion to make sure that the Widow Tweed never sees a penny of the inheritance he thinks is rightfully his.

CAST: Ciaran McMenamin, Pat Shortt, Judith Roddy, Gerard Jordan, Kathy Kiera Clarke

Iarsmaí (Remnants)

(WRI/DIR: Damian McCann)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.Museums and institutions in Ireland and abroad are actively decolonizing their collections and practices – partly because of Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter campaigns, and partly because of the emergence of a more progressive approach to dealing with problematic histories. Iarsmaí (Remnants) looks at Ireland’s role as a colony, and as a colonising influence in turn, through the issue of stolen skulls in TCD, and the presence of looted indigenous material from Australia in the Ulster Museum in Belfast, and from Benin City in the National Museum in Dublin. CAST: Ciarán Walsh, Eithne Verling, Ola Majekodunmi

The Wise Guy

(WRI/DIR: Sam O’Mahony)

Premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2024.A lonely boy desperately searches for guidance and protection, when he finds a completely unconventional mentor hiding in the nearby woods.

CAST: Senan Jennings, Darrell D’Silva, Lisa Dwyer Hogg, Paul Mallon, Joanne Crawford

The Line

(DIR: Danny McCafferty • WRI: Lee Crowley, Pete Daly)

Showcased at Cannes Film Festival 2024.The premiere feature from Avenue Productions, The Line tells the story of a disgruntled local forms an unlikely friendship with a Ukrainian refugee.

CAST: Joe Mullins, Veronika Lukyanenko, Lea Claffey

The Surfer

(DIR: Lorcan Finnegan • WRI: Thomas Martin)

The Surfer screened at Cannes Film Festival 2024.When a man returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking him to the edge of his sanity.

CAST: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nicholas Cassim

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother

(DIR: Jim Jarmusch • WRI: Jim Jarmusch)

Release date TBC.Estranged siblings reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents. Co-financed by Screen Ireland.

CAST: Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik

My Freaky Family

(DIR: Mark Gravas • WRI: Cleon Prineas, Harry Cripps, Penny Greenhalgh)

Premiered in the Sydney Film Festival.A magical Australian-Irish animation, based on the popular children’s books The Floods, in which 12-year-old Betty discovers her mystical powers just as a dark force kidnaps her family.

CAST: Evanna Lynch, Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh

Báite

(DIR: Ruán Magan • WRI: Sheena Lambert)

Release TBC.A woman’s body is found under the waters of a lake in the countryside, and the arrival of a Detective from Dublin is the last thing Peggy, the owner of Casey’s Pub, needs as she tries to save her business and her family.

CAST: Moe Dunford, Denis Conway, Tara Breathnach

Hallow Road

(DIR: Babak Anvari • WRI: William Gillies)Two parents receive a distressing late-night call from their teenage daughter, who has just accidentally hit a pedestrian. They jump in their car, racing to get there before anyone else stumbles across the scene. As they head deeper into the night, disturbing revelations threaten to tear the family apart as they soon realise they might not be the only ones driving down Hallow Road. Co-financed by Screen Ireland.

CAST: Rosamund Pike, Matthew Rhys, Paul Tylak, Megan McDonnell

The End

(DIR: Joshua Oppenheimer • WRI: Rasmus Heisterberg, Joshua Oppenheimer)

Premiered at TIFF.A wealthy family lives in an underground bunker two decades after the end of the world, which they directly contributed to. Co-produced by Wild Atlantic Pictures and supported by Screen Ireland

CAST: Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, Lennie James. 

Old Guy

(DIR: Simon West • WRI: Greg Johnson)

Premiered at Newport.This film follows a contract killer facing the end of his career who is thrilled when The Company pulls him back into the field training Gen Z newcomer: Wihlborg, a prodigy assassin with an attitude. Produced by Martin Brennan, Old Guy was shot on location in Belfast, with support from Northern Ireland Screen.

CAST: Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu, Cooper Hoffman

Christy

(WRI/DIR: Brendan Canty)Seventeen-year-old Christy is at a crossroads. Thrown out of his suburban foster home, he has moved in temporarily with his estranged older brother, Shane, in Cork’s inner city. But Shane wants something better for Christy. After so many years apart, the brothers are forced to reconcile their turbulent past, whilst deciding what the future looks like. Sometimes, to move forward, you have to go back.

CAST: Danny Power, Diarmuid Noyes, Emma Willis

Ready or Not

(DIR: Claire Frances Byrne • WRI: Lynn Ruane)A coming-of-age story with a twist, revealing the greyness we create to make sense of the world. Katie is the only child of two loving parents. Katie is cheeky, funny, and wants to be one of the boys. Her housing estate is small and is filled with young families who make up the maisonettes, flats, and houses. The transition to teenage life brings Katie and her friends to places they did not expect when they push the boundaries of their circle and try on a maturity they are not yet ready for.

Cast: Ruby Conway Dunne, Molly Byrne, Alex Grendon, Alicia Weaver

Mad for Love

(DIR: Jason Byrne, Kevin Treacy • WRI: John Connors, Kevin Treacy, Eoghan McKenna, Des Byrne)During his voluntary stay at an Irish mental hospital, manic-depressive Clayton falls head over heels for involuntary schizophrenic patient Anna. Clayton’s doctor feels the relationship is helping him heal, but Anna’s doctor thinks it is a disaster waiting to happen and tries to separate them.

CAST: John Connors, Jade Jordan, Graham Earley, Lalor Roddy, Kevin Glynn

The Wolf, The Fox And The Leopard

(WRI/DIR: David Verbeek)The Wolf, The Fox And The Leopard is a dystopian story about a girl found living among a pack of wolves. She is brought back to an ultra-modern medical centre to be examined under extreme scrutiny and prepared to return to society. Before her return to the ‘real’ world, she is kidnapped by a couple of extremists working to build a new, purer world on an abandoned oil rig. As she learns to adapt to their ways her curiosity quickly gets the better of her. Slowly but surely, she starts to provoke and rattle the status quo and eventually escapes. 

Co-produced by Feline Films.

Cry From the Sea

(DIR: Vic Sarin • WRI: Ciaran Creagh)In the aftermath of the first World War and the Irish Civil War, Seamus Óg Mac Grianna tends to a lighthouse on an isolated Irish island, haunted by the loss of his wife and son. When the new priest, Fr. MacGabhann clashes with him over the improper burial of his late wife on the lighthouse grounds, the conflict leaves the island’s loyalties divided. Seamus’ burgeoning friendship with American war widow Edith begins to strain his relationship with his housekeeper and protector, Maire, and with his grief, he must decide what kind of life he is willing to fight for.

CAST: Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Sarah Bolger, Aidan Quinn

Four Letters of Love

(DIR: Polly Steele • WRI: Niall Williams)Nicholas and Isabel are made for each other, but fate does not always choose the easiest path to true love. As destiny pulls them together, family, passion and faith drive them apart.

Co-produced by WRAP Fund.

CAST: Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne, Fionn O’Shea, Ann Skelly

Sanatorium

(DIR: Gar O’Rourke)People of all ages come in their thousands each summer for the Soviet-style therapeutic and wellness treatments on offer. The biggest attraction here is the mysterious mud – which is strongly believed to cure infertility, chronic ailments, and a myriad of other health problems. Following the stories of guests and staff over a summer season like no other, the film goes beyond the sanatorium’s pink and lime green corridors, to follow an assorted group of strangers, each seeking respite from their daily realities and in search of a better life for themselves.

No Place Like Home

(DIR: Myrid Carten)You can’t choose what you inherit, or can you? This uncompromising look at what gets passed down is framed around a contested house in the west of Ireland. A coming-of-age story and a survival story about the cost of love; and how difficult it can be to escape.

Moscow Nights

(DIR: Irina Maldea)The peaceful ending of the Cold War and terrifying nuclear confrontation was a huge achievement, entrancing the world and making Mikhail Gorbachev one of the most famous people ever, along with his wife, Raisa.

In Time: Dónal Lunny

(DIR: Nuala O’Connor)This film is the first film account of the life and work of Dónal Lunny, one of Ireland’s outstanding artists and is an appraisal of the creative process of this unique artist whose influence and impact on Irish traditional music has been enduring and far reaching.

The Morrigan

(WRI/DIR: Colum Eastwood)

This film follows an archaeologist who travels to Ireland to uncover a long-dead tomb. A threat is released and she will have to fight to keep her teenage daughter from falling under the control of The Morrigan, a vengeful “Pagan War Goddess.”

CAST: Toby Stephens, James Cosmo, Saffron Burrows

Skintown

(DIR: Kieron J. Walsh)

Skintown is set to shoot in 2025. Set in the mid-90s during the IRA ceasefire, the film follows the journey of two best friends trying to escape their life in a small Irish town. Immersing themselves in the world of raves, drugs and gangs the boys dream big but are thwarted by the realities of the world around them.

CAST: Anthony Boyle, Josh Finan