Irish Film Festival 2026 Brings Irish Cinema to Five Australian Cities and Online

Irish Film Festival 2026 brings Irish cinema across Australia

The Irish Film Festival 2026 opens in Sydney on 8 October before travelling to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra, with a parallel online program giving audiences throughout Australia access to a selection of festival films until 15 November.

The festival describes the 2026 edition as its biggest event in 12 years, with the program exploring contemporary Ireland through comedy, drama, horror, music and documentary filmmaking. Irish language, history, family, identity and the relationship between Ireland and Australia recur throughout the line-up.

Cinema screenings begin at Palace Moore Park in Sydney from 8 to 11 October, followed by Palace Barracks in Brisbane from 16 to 19 October. Melbourne's program runs at The Kino from 22 to 25 October, Perth follows at Palace Raine Square from 30 October to 2 November, and Canberra closes the cinema leg at Palace Electric from 6 to 9 November. The online festival, presented through ACMI Cinema 3, runs nationally from 8 October to 15 November.

Chasing Millions opens the festival

The five-city Opening Night film is Chasing Millions, an Irish-Australian crime dramedy inspired by a true story. Christopher Eccleston plays a veteran Belfast detective investigating a major bank robbery alongside a young Australian police officer, played by Madeleine Madden.

Directed by Stephen Burke and written by Burke and Australian playwright and screenwriter Katherine Thomson, the 100-minute film is an Irish-Australian co-production produced by Jane Doolan and Michael Wrenn. Its creative team also includes composer Jim Moginie.

Chasing Millions receives Australian premiere screenings at each Opening Night, accompanied by the festival's traditional celebrations of Irish music, food and drink. Doors open at 6pm before the film begins at 7.45pm in each city, with post-screening Q&As featuring filmmakers including Burke, Doolan and Madden.

Sydney opens on Thursday 8 October, followed by Brisbane on Friday 16 October, Melbourne on Thursday 22 October, Perth on Friday 30 October and Canberra on Friday 6 November.

Irish-Australian stories take a prominent role

The connection between the two countries extends well beyond Opening Night. Almost With You follows an Irish singer-songwriter, played by Declan O'Rourke, whose tour of Western Australia leads to a new relationship as he deals with personal tragedy. Written and directed by Adam Morris, the romance also features Chloe Hurst and Darren Gallagher, with music by O'Rourke and Luka Bloom.

The festival is also staging its inaugural Short Film Competition, accompanied by a dedicated Irish-Australian Short Film Program in Sydney and Melbourne and online nationally. The eight-film collection examines Irish and Australian connections through filmmakers, performers, subjects and cultural heritage.

Its subjects range widely. Cupan Tae follows a bartender reconnecting with the Irish language, while One by One, the Lights Go Out considers the end of an era on a family farm and is narrated by Irish writer Michael Harding. Flirt centres on a young man's debs night, while This Happened addresses consent, binge drinking and toxic masculinity. Sydney-based Irish-heritage rapper AEDAN appears in the music video Coming in 4's. Winners of the competition will be announced at the Sydney screening.

Drama, music and the Irish language

Irish-language filmmaking has a substantial place in the program. Baite (The Drowned), directed by Ruan Magan and written by Sheena Lambert, is a historical mystery set in Connemara. Eleanor O'Brien plays publican Peggy, whose struggle to protect her family's home is complicated by the discovery of a body in a nearby lake. Moe Dunford, Padraig O Loingsigh and Denis Conway also feature.

Trad turns towards Ireland's musical traditions. Lance Daly's drama follows Shona, a gifted young musician rebelling against her mother and traditional Irish culture on the Wild Atlantic Coast. The cast includes Megan Nic Fhionnghaile, Aidan Gillen, Sarah Greene and Dallan Woods.

Music also drives Travelling Back (Ag Taisteal Siar), a documentary exploring the musical heritage of Ireland's Traveller community and its influence on Irish music, while the online documentary Gealtra (Wild Bunch) follows teenagers at The Kabin Studio in Knocknaheeny, Cork, a youth-led creative hub.

At the darker end of the program is Frewaka (Roots), writer-director Aislinn Clarke's Irish-language folk horror film. Clare Monnelly stars as a palliative care nurse caring for an elderly woman, played by Brid Ni Neachtain, in an isolated farmhouse where folklore and apparent supernatural forces begin to intrude.

Family stories and contemporary Ireland

Horseshoe brings four estranged siblings back together in Sligo following their father's death, forcing the family to confront his will and their shared history. Directed by Edwin Mullane and Adam O'Keeffe, the drama stars Carolyn Bracken, Lalor Roddy, Jed Murray and Neill Fleming.

Girls & Boys moves to Halloween night in Dublin, where rugby player Jace encounters aspiring filmmaker Charlie at a university party. Written and directed by Donncha Gilmore, the romantic drama stars Adam Lunnon-Collery and Liath Hannon, with Hannon and Gilmore participating in festival Q&As.

Other fictional works include Whitetail, centred on a woman whose guilt over a teenage tragedy returns to confront her, and The Lightkeeper, in which the solitary routines of a lighthouse keeper are disrupted by an American war widow, a priest and his housekeeper.

Documentaries explore Ireland's history and changing society

The documentary program reaches from the Irish landscape to political history and some of the country's most difficult institutional legacies.

Aoife Kelleher's Testimony follows survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes as they seek accountability from the Irish state and Catholic Church. The 105-minute documentary, featuring Imelda Staunton, Rod Baker and Frank Brehany, was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2026 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards and for Best Irish Film and Best Documentary at the 2025 Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards. Festival cinema screenings are followed by Q&As with Kelleher and producer Farah Abushwesha.

Listen to the Land Speak, another 2026 IFTA-nominated feature documentary, follows writer and commentator Manchan Magan as he considers the knowledge preserved in Ireland's landscapes, language and mythology. Directed by Maurice O'Brien, it will screen in all five festival cities and online, with O'Brien participating in Q&As.

Political and social history continues online with Daniel O'Connell: The Emancipator, which reassesses the life and legacy of the Irish political leader and campaigner for Catholic emancipation, and James Connolly: We Only Want the Earth, examining the revolutionary socialist and trade unionist's ideas and their contemporary resonance.

Buried Alive (Beo Faoin Bhfod) recounts the extraordinary story of a young Irish builder buried alive in a builders' yard in Kilburn, London, as part of a publicity stunt in the 1960s.

Hush-A-Bye Baby returns to the screen

The 2026 festival also reaches back into Irish screen history with a restored print of Margo Harkin's Hush-A-Bye Baby.

Set in Derry in 1984, the coming-of-age drama centres on teenager Goretti Friel and an unwanted pregnancy against the political and religious pressures of the period. Emer McCourt stars as Goretti, while the film features a young Sinead O'Connor, who also contributed its music.

Harkin will participate in Q&As accompanying the festival screenings. The film plays in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra and is included in the national online selection.

Filmmaker Q&As extend the cinema program

Nine cinema titles in the 2026 program are accompanied by Q&A sessions featuring directors, writers, actors or other filmmakers, hosted by Dr Enda Murray. The discussions will take place after cinema screenings, with the festival planning to publish them online following the event.

The sessions give the touring festival an additional live component, with filmmakers attached to titles including Chasing Millions, Baite, Girls & Boys, Listen to the Land Speak and Testimony participating in discussions about their work.

Irish Film Festival 2026 dates and venues

The Irish Film Festival begins at Palace Moore Park, Sydney, from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 October. It then moves to Palace Barracks, Brisbane, from Friday 16 to Monday 19 October and The Kino, Melbourne, from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October.

Perth screenings take place at Palace Raine Square from Friday 30 October to Monday 2 November, followed by Palace Electric in Canberra from Friday 6 to Monday 9 November.

For viewers outside the five cinema locations, the online Irish Film Festival runs across Australia through ACMI Cinema 3 from Thursday 8 October until Sunday 15 November. The digital selection includes feature films, documentaries and the Irish-Australian Short Film Program.

2026 Program

Tickets are now on sale, with individual session times and the full 2026 program available through the Irish Film Festival.

SYDNEY - Palace Moore Park
Thu 8 - Sun 11 October

BRISBANE - Palace Barracks
Fri 16 - Mon 19 October

MELBOURNE - The Kino
Thu 22 - Sun 25 October

PERTH - Palace Raine Square
Fri 30 October - Mon 2 November

CANBERRA - Palace Electric
Fri 6 - Mon 9 November

ONLINE (across Australia) - via ACMI Cinema 3
Thu 8 October - Sun 15 November