Bloomsday Film Festival

‘Whenever I am obliged to lie with my eyes closed I see a cinematograph going on and on and it brings back to my memory things I had almost forgotten.’ – James Joyce.

Ireland’s most literary film festival. Set up as a celebration of cinema, literature, and artistic innovation, inspired by the long reaching arm of Ireland’s patriarch of modernism, James Joyce. The festival is run in partnership with the Bloomsday Festival & the James Joyce Centre and will run between the 11th – 16th June, with screenings taking place at the historic James Joyce Centre and the IFI, as well as Online.

Like last year, we will celebrate the birthday of W.B Yeats on the 13th of June with a selection of Poetry and Literature short films. On the 14th, in keeping with Joyce’s radical and experimental spirit, we will screen the best Experimental Films. On the 15th, the anniversary of the publications of Dubliners, we will dedicate to Dublin with screenings of Joycean short films and Dublin Short Stories. We will also have many more special events between the 11th – 16th, as well as on Bloomsday itself of course, the 16th, and will screen the feature films in the evenings.

We want to encourage artistic innovation within the medium, artists who do things their own way, and films that seek to push the craft forward, as Joyce did so greatly within his own craft of literature.

View The Official Selection 2024

For enquiries: bloomsdayfilmfestival@jamesjoyce.ie
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Best Irish Experimental Short
Did You Miss It?

Dir Lawrence Cook
“A highly original piece made in the true experimental spirit. With the logic of a piece of music rather than a traditional narrative, repeating and building to a brilliant crescendo like an EDM track, as well as being one of the most compelling depictions of the inner life of a modern youth and the terrifying 2001-esque stargates flooding through our minds every moment.”

Best International Experimental Short
Liminal Space: Diving Within

Dir Anahita Safarnejad Choobary
“A heartrendingly honest and articulate depiction of the inner transformational process of grief.  Thrillingly innovative, cinematic, and stylish but always motivated and never over substance – this film’s experimental interweaving of spoken poetry, expressionist imagery, and home video cuts to the core of the human experience. It is poetry cinema of the highest calibre, and the poet filmmaker behind the film bears her soul in a most fearless and admirable way.”

Best Irish Poetry Short
A Red Negligee
Dir Fiona Aryan
“This piece was a beautifully provocative film dealing with heartache and love struggle in a very concise, sensitive and poignant way. The conciseness of the poem is reflected in the considered choice of imagery used, every image and word saying a multitude to create a full picture of the pain and suffering being lived by the protagonists in the story. The juxtaposition of the flimsy negligee and the wholesome dressing gowns represent the two different lives on offer, the tail-wagging dog creating suspense as we wait for the decision that needs to be made. A truly moving piece, this film is a very worthy winner.”

Best International Poetry Short
Nine Moons
Dir Janet Lees
“Janet Lees’ Nine Moons is a very moving film and very worthy of this award. A powerful poem, haunting music and highly artistic imagery of stark moonscape, moonlit landscape and snippets of a world of yesteryear, this film is a feast for the senses. So expertly rendered, one is left with the feeling of having been on a journey to a lonely un-space where loss, love and sadness meet.”

Best Literature Short
Shakes Versus Shav
Dir Damian Farrell & Gerry Hoban
“An extraordinarily exquisite adaptation of Shaw’s last completed play into film, perfectly capturing his irreverent competitiveness with the the Bard. The marionettes were gracefully crafted and sensitively puppeteered, and the staging, lighting and cinematography were all suitably dramatic. This, along with two stellar acting performances and a suitably amusing score, contributed to an undeniably entertaining film, and a compelling Shavian manifesto for GBS’s literary greatness.”

Best Dublin Short Story
Findlater
Dir Allyn Quigley
“We are pleased to award the prize for best Short Dublin Story to Findlater.
In Findlater writer/ director Allyn Quigley cleverly conjures a scenario within which two
women can interrogate their shared past. The encounter between a young woman and her
estranged birth mother is incredibly intense – each of them desperate for information, each
of them grieving the absence of the other in their lives. The story is told with rigorous
economy, with both women, Lousie Lewis and Hazel Doupe, as assured in their silence as
in their spare, natural dialogue. This portrait revealing the essence of two Dubliners, is as powerful as they come.”

Special Mention
Room Taken
Dir TJ O’Grady-Peyton

Best Joycean Short
Lutefluvious Ebullition
Dir Jonathan C. Creasy
“A joyful rendering of the watery passage from Ithaca into film with a delicate interplay between musician, reader and visuals. There was a real sensitivity to the rhythm and cadence of Joyce’s prose, which delivered an entertaining, amusing and dramatic viewing experience, all cleverly wrapped up in the time it takes to boil a kettle.”

Best Feature
Kino Volta
Dir Martin Turk
“We are pleased to award the prize for best feature length film to Kino Volta. The film is remarkable as it reveals a new piece of the Joycean jigsaw, telling the tale of Joyce, his Triestine partners and the Volta Cinema, a tale which to date has been a mere curiosity, a fun footnote in the literary biography. Located in Dublin and Trieste, this creative documentary bounds nimbly across geographic and temporal boundaries, weaving together period reenactments and present day encounters, in an assured and exuberantly creative format that is both entertaining and clearly premised on extensive primary research. The film is an excellent and valuable addition to the growing catalogue of Joycean Cinema.”

Special Mention
The Disembodied Adventures of Alice
Dir Cléa van der Grijn

Best Overall Short
Liminal Space: Diving Within
Dir Anahita Safarnejad Choobary
“This sublime film could have fit into many of our categories, and so it is very appropriate for it to receive our top award – it even shares some Joycean qualities being ‘protean’ in nature like Joyce’s writing. From a confident and highly original voice who we are very excited to hear more about in the future. One of the most powerful films we’ve seen at the festival.”