Ciné Gael Montréal
celebrates its 34th season

Irish cinema festival presents a solid line-up of films and documentaries

By Irwin Rapoport

January 22, 2026

Ciné Gael Montréal launched its 34th season earlier this month, and this Friday, January 23, the second film of the popular Irish film festival, Girls & Boys, will be presented at 7:15 pm in the DeSève Theatre at Concordia University’s J.W. McConnell Building at 1400 De Maisonneuve W, across the street from the Hall Building.

This year, the festival, running Friday nights until May 15, is screening seven films and on March 27, presenting an Evening of Irish Short Films, including the latest from G. Scott MacLeod in his History of Griffintown series.

“Our website shows our full programme of eight screenings, and shows trailers and descriptions for the seven films in our 34th Season, save our short films evening,” said Antoine Maloney, who is responsible for Ciné Gael’s communications. “Ciné Gael Montréal was founded in 1993. As we start this thirty-fourth season, we must thank the Saint Patrick’s Society of Montreal and Irish Studies at Concordia for their sustained strong support over all our first thirty-three years. As well, Ireland, through its Embassy in Ottawa, continues to be a strong supporter of our efforts. Much thanks is also due to Hurley’s Irish Pub, which generously hosts our committee meetings and some of our Membership Evenings, and we are indebted to all of you who offer so much enthusiasm. We also appreciate the stalwart support of our many sponsors, including IFI (Irish Film Institute), Concordia Irish Studies, and the Bloomsday Festival.”

This year, the festival, running Friday nights until May 15, is screening seven films and on March 27, presenting an Evening of Irish Short Films, including the latest from G. Scott MacLeod in his History of Griffintown series.

“Our website has material for all our previous seasons, including our blockbuster 1998 year, and we hope you’ll visit,” he added. “This represents a real trove of Irish Film history, and we have a search feature that lets you search our site and gives you links to the Trinity College Dublin and IFTN film archives.”

This year’s festival was launched on January 9 with An Fidil Ghorm, a drama filmed in Irish.

Girls & Boys is the directorial debut of Donncha Gilmore. Notes Film Ireland:

“A chance encounter at a Halloween party leads to unexpected revelations in Donncha Gilmore’s feature debut, Girls & Boys. Over the course of one lingering night, Charlie (Liath Hannon) and Jace (Adam Lunnon-Collery) forge something intimate and meaningful as they wander the streets of Dublin City.”

“… This film is bathed in nostalgia for classic 90s indie cinema. Charlie and Jace’s connection is reminiscent of Jesse and Céline in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy or Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan in Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. With a pitch-perfect central pairing, sharp dialogue, beautiful visuals and essential subject matter, Girls & Boys is simply a cinematic must-see.”

cinegaelmontreal.com

Frame from Born That Way

David Hanley, Ciné Gael’s Director of Programming, responded to key curatorial questions about the Irish film festival and its film selections.

WM: Can you tell us more about Ciné Gael Montréal and its mission?

Hanley: Our primary goal is to celebrate Irish cinema, which includes films produced in the Republic of Ireland but also extends to films from or about Northern Ireland or to Irish diasporas such as those in Canada, the U.S., or Britain. While our audience is primarily Montrealers of Irish descent, we also have a fair number of Irish expatriates and movie lovers seeking quality films they can’t find in cinemas, which tend to be dominated by big-budget Hollywood films.

Our programming team considers anything with content, locations, cast, or key artistic contributors that are either Irish or at least Irish-related, and while most films are in English, the past few years have seen a growing wave of Irish-language productions. It’s also a point of pride that many of the best films we have shown over the years have never been distributed in North American cinemas.

WM: The Irish film industry has delivered many excellent films over the past decade. How would you describe the state of the industry and the types of films being produced?

Hanley: On one hand, Irish performers such as Saoirse Ronan, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Fassbender, as well as directors such as Lenny Abrahamson, have achieved great success in recent years (and all of whom have had films screened by Ciné Gael in recent years), both in Ireland and around the world. There have also been several trends which have not attracted the same level of international attention.

‘Our primary goal is to celebrate Irish cinema, which includes films produced in the Republic of Ireland but also extends to films from or about Northern Ireland or to Irish diasporas such as those in Canada, the U.S., or Britain.’

The most notable is the rapid growth in Irish-language films, most famously The Quiet Girl, which was nominated for an Oscar and we showed in 2024. While we previously showed only a few Irish-language features, this will be the fourth straight year we will be showing two, as well as several short films, in Irish with English subtitles. This year, we are showcasing two Irish-language features: an Fidil Ghorm (Blue Fiddle) and Aontas.

Beyond that, there have been a number of high-quality films in English across a wide variety of genres, including this year’s sweet, low-key gender-bending romance Girls & Boys and the intense, low-key drama Christy. Documentary has always been a strength of Irish cinema, and this year is no different, as we offer three very different kinds in the highly political Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man, the warm and compassionate observational documentary Born That Way, and a fascinating literary biography in Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story.

WM: This year’s selection of films covers a wide array of subjects. How were they chosen and why?

Hanley: Our hardworking selection committee watches as many of the new films made in or about Ireland as we can, and then tries to show the best ones. Some films aren’t available because they are being held back for bigger festivals (in which case, we might try and show them next year) and some might not be made available for festival screenings by their distributors, but there are always plenty of good films to choose from, and we try to go for a mix, with both documentaries and fiction films, comedies and dramas. And, of course, there’s what is always our most popular evening: a selection of Ireland’s best short films from the past year.

Feature image: frame from Aontas
All images: courtesy of Ciné Gael Montréal

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Irwin Rapoport is a freelance journalist and community advocate from Westmount with bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from Concordia University. He writes extensively on local politics, education, and environmental issues, and promotes informed public discourse and local democracy through his writing and activism.