20/07/2021 - The Irish festival, unspooling from 20-25 July, will take place in a hybrid format, with in-person screenings for the first time in two years

The Galway Film Fleadh, Ireland’s leading festival, will be back from 20-25 July. The 2021 edition will take place in a hybrid format, hosting in-person outdoor and indoor screenings for the first time in two years and, for those who cannot attend the gathering, titles will be streamed on the festival’s website.

The upcoming edition of the Fleadh will be opened by the European Premiere of Stacey Gregg’s debut feature Here Before, a psychological thriller set in Northern Ireland, starring Andrea Riseborough as a bereaved mother whose new neighbours stir up uncomfortable feelings of grief. Meanwhile, the closing film will be Teresa Lavina’s Untold Secrets, a documentary revolving around the survivors of Irish Mother & Baby Homes, and in particular the testimony of one Anne Silke, who was fostered out of the Bon Secours Mother & Baby Home in Tuam.

In total, this year’s programme includes 45 features and over 100 shorts. Among the festival highlights are the world premieres of Dónall Ó Héalai’s Irish-language feature Foscadh (based on the book ‘The Thing About December’ by Donal Ryan), Tomás Seoighe’s docu-drama The Queen v Patrick Donnell, Graham Cantwell’s new effort Who We Love and Conor O’Toole’s indie flick Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up, along with other Irish and international titles such as Matt Bissonnette’s Death of a Ladies’ Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Kim Bartley’s Pure Grit, Darragh Carey and Bertrand Desrochers’ A Brixton Tale [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Darragh Carey, Bertrand Des…
film profile], Colum Eastwood’s Black Medicine, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s Wolfwalkers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Carlo Lavagna’s Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlo Lavagna
film profile], Chris Baugh’s Boys From County Hell [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Kostas Marsan’s Ich-chi.

Tickets can be booked here.