Brooklyn

Dir. John Crowley, 2015, 117mins

Colm Tóibín introduces a special screening of Brooklyn which he adapted (with Nick Hornby) from his celebrated novel.

One of the most successful Irish films of the past decade is well worth seeing again on the big screen. Éilís (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish immigrant, lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within. Featuring fine performances from then rising star Domhnall Gleeson and the perennial Bríd Brennan.

Public Interview:

Colm Tóíbín in conversation with Volker Schlöndorff 

Volker Schlöndorff retrospective

In a remote public interview facilitated across time-zones at the Model Cinema, Volker Schlöndorff (Berlin) will be interviewed about his sixty-year career by friend and collaborator Colm Tóibín (Los Angeles).

The event will be facilitated by Sligo conferencing service Studiorove.

Return to Montauk

2017, 106mins

Volker Schlöndorff retrospective

Colm Tóibín wrote the screenplay for this Volker Schlöndorff film, the plot of which is broadly inspired by Max Frisch's 1975 novel Montauk.

During a book tour in the United States, Max meets and falls in love with a young woman. Many years later, Max (Stellan Skarsgård) returns to the United States with his partner Clara (Susanne Wolff), hoping to reunite with his former lover (Nina Hoss) during a weekend in Montauk, Long Island.

Keep an eye out for Derry star Bronagh Gallagher.

Director in Attendance

Sligo on the Edge DOUBLE BILL

Samanta Nobody

Dir. Ciarán Creagh

2025 90mins

This film comes from the writer-director of Ann and that film’s producer Niall Flynn. Samanta is played by Dublin Film Festival Discovery nominee Ruby Jean Lennon, a 16-year-old homeless girl on the streets of Sligo town. For Samanta – no’h’ - reaching out for help has only ever ended in closed doors, but she has a hidden gift for songwriting and performance. When a music shop owner spots her talent, she has a chance to finally accept that music could be the open door she’s been waiting for.

Where do we all belong?

Dirs. Peter Martin, Ronan Dillon Prod: Noel Feeney

2026 20mins

(film will precede the main feature)

When a Sligo community art project invites strangers to speak honestly about loneliness, hidden stories surface. This is a gentle and engaging piece of art documentary.

The Tin Drum

1979, 160min

Volker Schlöndorff retrospective

A darkly comic war drama with magical realist elements, the film follows Oskar, a precocious child living in the Baltic enclave of Danzig (modern day Gdańsk), who wields seemingly preternatural abilities. He lives in contempt of the adults around him and witnesses firsthand their potential for cruelty, first via the rise of the Nazi Party and then the subsequent war. 

Adapted from the novel by Gunther Grasse, the film won the Palme D’Or at Cannes and the Foreign Language Oscar in 1979.

SECRET CINEMA

Last year we tried out our Secret Cinema slot with a local title (Samanta Nobody). For this year, we are going international with the work of a top director who we are inviting to join us (online) to introduce the film. Please take a chance on a sneak preview of this important new work.

An Irish Atlantic Rainforest

Dir. Gary Lennon, 2026, 91mins

Anyone interested in solving Leitrim’s forestry problem will be inspired by this film adaptation of the celebrated book of the same title by Eoghan Daltun.

“Here is a strikingly beautiful Irish documentary that looks to be taking us to an alien world within the nation’s terrestrial borders. For the past several years, Eoghan Daltun, sculptor, author and ecological preservationist, has been working at rewilding a patch of the Beara Peninsula, in west Co Cork. Daltun explains that, thoughcovered with deciduous trees and blasted by winter winds, the area can be described as a class of rainforest. Sure enough, when Ross Bartley and Brian O’Leary’s cameras get down close among the flapped fungi and the green-eyed insects, one really could believe oneself in an exotic elsewhere.” Donald Clarke Irish Times

Unquiet Dreams 

Dir. Cyrus Rosen, 2025, 8mins

Networking Event – Free Event

A chance to celebrate the recently completed works in a convivial atmosphere and to gain some updates into emerging opportunities in the regional film sector presented by developments in Community TV.

Booking recommended

Creative Heartlands Shorts Programme

Hot off the presses, this is our annual showcasing of new films realised by filmmakers in the SLR region

Handy Cam

W/Dir. Conor Lambert

A thief dumps a handy cam and there begins a roller-coaster journey through many hands and situations. Tessa Fonfara produces.

Creative Heartlands Bursary award

Svitlana

W/Dir. Patryk Łukaszewski

A Ukrainian mother and school-going daughter, separated from husband and father by war, face eviction and rising hostility in Ireland’s escalating housing crisis.

Creative Heartlands Bursary award

Ireland’s Oldest Altar Boy

W/Dir. Luke Curley 

When a film crew arrives in a small parish in the mid-1980s to profile the country’s oldest altar boy, the encounter becomes an unexpected and unusual coming-of-age.

Creative Heartlands Bursary award

Capall

Dir. Glenn Gannon 2026 

A game of ‘horse’ spirals out of control for two criminals as they drive to their next deadly job.

Made with the support of TG4 and Screen Ireland. (Irish with subs)

Next Door

W/Dir Ananya Sharma and Shane ÓCeallaigh 

Noreen is struggling to deal with the changing complexion of her community. When an Indian family move in next door things come to a head. 

Woodweb

W/Dir. Michéal Coughlan 

In this witty eco-horror Dr. Battle, a frustrated biologist, enlists the help of Caelan a young PhD computer whizz-kid, to help her get a breakthrough in her research into how trees communicate. 

Next Door and Woodweb  were made under the Cultural and Creative Industries Skillnet/Creative Heartland Summer Film Production Course with additional support from Roscommon County Council Social Inclusion Fund.

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum,

106mins, 1975

Volker Schlöndorff retrospective

With Irish German-based activist – part of the Ulm Five - Daniel Tatlow-Devally currently being held in Stammheim and under terrorist legislation, this film from 1975 seems very topical.

Katharina Blum is a shy and retiring housekeeper for a wealthy couple, but she is targeted by press and police after she falls for a wanted man.

The Nobel winning author Heinrich Böll – on whose 1973 novel this film was based - has in his sights the twin targets of an intrusive yellow press and an overreaching German police force who in the early 1970s were openly at war with the Red Army Faction. 

Heinrich Böll enjoyed a strong connection with the West of Ireland and wrote the influential travelogue My Irish Diary (1957), introducing a generation of Germans to a country that stood apart from an industrialised Europe. However, it was as a novelist and commentator on German post-war society that he was best known. 

Director in Attendance

Nóra 

Dir. Pat Murphy, 2000, 106mins 

Inspired by the biography of Nóra Barnacle by Brenda Maddox

In Dublin, 1904, James Joyce (Ewan McGregor) walks down Dublin’s Nassau Street and chats up Nora Barnacle, a young woman from Galway. Joyce, immediately in love, offers to 'show her the city'. Nora coldly states that she has to work. The film then proceeds to examine the relationship between the two and their elopement to the Adriatic city of Trieste. As with Brenda Maddox’ biography, the film’s source material, Murphy’s film explores Nora’s inspiration for Joyce’s writing and her role in the liberation of his imagination as a writer. The film was Winner of the IFTA Best Screenplay award for Gerry Stembridge and Pat Murphy. Pat Murphy was awarded the Crystal Globe at the prestigious Karlovy Vary festival.

Post screening interview with Pat Murphy

Prose to Pictures
Screenwriting Workshop:
Paul FitzSimons 

Prose to Pictures is the title of this workshop from experienced tutor and mentor Paul FitzSimons. It is aimed at existing writers of novels, short stories and stage-plays looking to move into screenwriting. It deals with all the areas around screenwriting and story development for the big and small screen. It focuses on helping experienced writers to use their transferable creative skills to move into the film industry.

Paul FitzSimons has run courses on screenwriting for film and TV drama, specifically story design and screenwriting for new and emerging writers. Clients include Screen Ireland, the National Talent Academies,NFTS Scotland and the Kildare Writers Centre.

Manorhamilton Library (Main St.)

€20.00

Hold onto Me

Dir. Myrsini Aristidou, 2026, 102mins

with post-screening interview

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

It's summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father's funeral

“…the first feature from Cypriot writer-director Myrsini Aristidou, departs from a recognizable premise — that of a child seeking affection from an estranged and ill-equipped parent — to find singular shades in the relationship it examines. Initially, neither party trusts the other, and the surprising but emotionally logical betrayal that prompts the film’s high-stakes climax carries a lovingly sincere intention.” Variety 

The screening of Hold onto Me is part of Leitrim’s celebration of all things Cyprus to coincide with Ireland’s EU Presidency. 

Circle of Deceit

1981, 118mins

Introduction by the director Free Culture Night Screening

Volker Schlöndorff retrospective

Lebanon is a country that has held a particular place in many Irish people’s hearts, not least because of our Defence Forces’ peacekeeping role in the country, due to end this year.

Volker Schlöndorff’s 1981 film is set in Beirut against the backdrop of Civil War and deteriorating circumstances for the city’s large Palestinian refugee population. Georg (Bruno Ganz) is a German journalist posted to the city, leaving behind his young family and a failing marriage. He quickly feels at odds with the foreign media pack, but compatriot embassy worker Arianna (Hanna Schygulla) has her feet on the ground. The film which shines a light on western media attitudes to the region resonates through the decades. As Georg becomes increasingly unmoored, the film raises questions of media objectivity in a war setting and the brutalising effect of violence on the observer. 

Volker Schlöndorff adapted Nicolas Born’s novel with – among others –  Margaretta von Trotta - and brought together stars of German cinema in Hanna Schygulla and Bruno Ganz in the lead (who audiences will remember playing the Hitler role in Downfall).

Director in Attendance.

Booking Recommended.

Direction Workshop:

Pat Murphy

WORKSHOP

Acting for Screen with Conor McDermottroe

Sligoman Conor McDermottroe is an Irish writer/director/actor. He started his professional acting career with the Irish Theatre Company then worked with the Abbey and Gate theatres before moving to Australia, where he worked in film and television. Conor returned to Ireland in 1991 and worked with Druid and the National Theatre in London. In 1997 Conor started writing/directing. He made three shorts, the last, A Woman’s Hair, won best picture at the Venice International Short Film Festival. His first feature, Swansong Story of Occi Byrne (2009), was adapted from his one man play. His second feature Halal Daddy (2017) has been sold worldwide.  

All that Glitters

Dir. Peter Lavery, 2025, 100mins

Students of Sligo Mercy College attend a screening of this Romeo and Juliet inspired coming of age story directed by Peter Lavery,

Followed by Q+A with writer/director Peter Lavery.

Schools Group Booking only

Interested in School Group bookings contact adaptation@banditfilms.ie

To open the festival, we are screening a series of short film adaptations by North Leitrim filmmakers

A Midwinter’s Tale

Dir. Dee Armstrong, 2026, 20mins

Musician and filmmaker Dee Armstrong teams up with Oscar nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan and a host of Leitrim onscreen talent to adapt for the screen Vincent Woods’ celebrated play The Black Pig’s Dyke. 

Beneath the Quiet

Dir. Bláithín Gallagher, 2024, 3mins 30)

Drumkeeran-based Bláithín Gallagher collaborates with cinematographer son Fiachra, editor daughter Caoimhe Gallagher Lawson and co-director Miles Davis Murphy to produce this intense and highly visual reimagining of Yeats’ Lake Isle of Inishfree. Maeve McCormack coproduces.

A Woman’s Hair

Dir.Conor McDermottroe, 2005, 12mins 30

Eight-year-old Elaine is sent away from home when her mother dies. Returning to the family bar several years later she discovers things have changed. From the Bryan McMahon short story.

The Curse

Dir. Johnny Gogan, 2025 13mins 45

An adaptation of a Dermot Healy short story. Kildare, 1972: fourteen-year-old Charlie (Finn O’Hara) dreams of becoming a jockey. Featuring Alan Devine and John Carty. Deirdre O’Meara produced.

Leitrim Glens Sportive!

Dir. Colm Farrell, 2026, 2mins 22

Colm Farrell takes Seán MacDiarmada’s statue in Kiltyclogher as a starting point for this imaginative film for the annual North Leitrim cycling event. 

Love Song to a Bicycle

Dirs. Laura McMorrow/Johnny Gogan, 2022, 25mins

Laura McMorrow, Johnny Gogan and Leitrim singer-songwriter Ailie Blunnie, share a love of cycling and Flann O’Brien’s classic novel The Third Policeman. Special Mention at Filmed by Bike Festival Portland Oregon.

Programme runs for 80mins approx.

All that Glitters

Dir. Peter Lavery, 2025, 100mins

Peter Lavery’s All That Glitters is a heartfelt coming-of-age comedy about Ryan, a teenager struggling to find his place at school and at home with his father, who happens to be his English teacher. 

The film which premiered at this year’s Dublin Film Festival was coproduced by Manorhamilton-based company Bandit Films.

Schools Group Bookings only

Interested in School Group bookings contact adaptation@banditfilms.ie