Belfast International Arts Festival is into its last week (finishing on Sunday 5 November), local events in the ESCR Festival of Social Science are ongoing (last one on Saturday 11), Belfast Film Festival is about to start (Thursday 2–Saturday 11), and Outburst Queer Arts Festival is just around the corner (Thursday 9–Saturday 18).
Belfast Film Festival is squeezing in an early spooky screening tonight for Halloween (Tuesday 31 October), with Haunted Ulster Live in the QFT at 21:00. Then the main festival begins on Thursday 2 November with the (sold out) opening film All Of Us Strangers in Cineworld at 19:30. Paul Mescal is back with a fantasy about love.
The first of eight movies from emerging filmmakers in the International Competition is being screened on Thursday night at 20:45 in the QFT with the non-preachy, non-judgemental end-of-school holiday in the sun film How To Have Sex [reviewed] (Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature) which exposes the teenage hurt and angst that lies beneath the carefully curated exterior. A story of loneliness in a crowd, of predatory behaviour, of coerced consent.
Also in the competition is Tótem, a Mexican family drama with a party steeped in tragedy seen through the eyes of a seven year old girl. Lila Avilés’ second feature is in the QFT on Friday 3 at 18:15. One last competition film to mention is Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [reviewed] from Georgian director Elene Naveriani (QFT at 18:00 on Monday 6) about a middle-aged woman’s near-death experience which kick starts a drole journey of longing and loneliness.
You can pretend you’re a member of the jury in the tense French courtroom drama when a man falls to his death in Anatomy of a Fall [reviewed] on Friday 3 at 20:30.
Mark Cousins lit up many a Belfast Film Festival for me with his off-the-wall documentaries like What is this Film Called Love? and Here be Dragons which were filmed on days off while on overseas trips. He’s back in the 2023 festival with Cinema Has Been My True Love (QFT at 12:45 on Saturday 4) which promises to be a candid and inspirational portrait of film festival programmer, author and producer Lynda Myles who championed the early work of directors who would go on to become ‘the movie brats’ (a phrase that she coined). Also on Saturday 4 you can catch new Irish horror film and Ian Hunt Duffy debut Double Blind [reviewed] where young volunteers hopes of earning easy money from participating in a medical drug trial are dashed.
The Delinquents is an Argentinian bank heist with an unusually moral motivation. QFT at noon on Sunday 5. A series of sub-half hour films from Northern Ireland directors is being screened in Strand Arts Centre that afternoon. Viva (15:00, Marie Claire Cushinan) [reviewed], Communion (15:40, Séan Coyle) [reviewed], Desideratum (16:20, KC Connolly), Three Way Mirror (17:00, Kevin J Mc Corry) and Heaven Scent (18:00, Michael McNulty).
You can bring your pouch to a screening of Whose Dog Am I? in the Black Box at 19:00 … as long as you and your pet can promise to be well-behaved in a room full of other canines. No pets required at Monster [reviewed] (QFT at 21:00), a Japanese tale of family, childhood and generational alienation from director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The greatest spectacle on Wednesday 8 might well be the screening of Joel Coen’s Barton Fink (The Avenue at 19:00) which picks up awards like a giant magnet.
John Sayles’ Lone Star (1996) is being screened in Strand Arts Centre at 18:00 on Thursday 9. And you can check out Pierce Brosnan’s accent in the gala screening of Terry Loane’s The Last Rifleman [reviewed] in the Cineworld at 19:00.
Circus master and serial filmmaker Ken Fanning is hosting Out of the Big Top Onto the Screen, a selection of circus shorts and exploring the many ways his world can be presented on screen. Friday 10 November at 20:00 in Circusful (the new name for Belfast Community Circus School). Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway star in William Oldroyd’s subversive noir Eileen in the QFT at 21:15.
Saturday 11 November is the final day of the festival. ReVision sees what young people and students of filmmaking have been able to create from Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive (QFT at 10:00). And in the same venue at noon, one of the films being digitally restored by the archive will be screened: Brian’ Drysdale’s The Boxer (1979). The Shadowless Tower (Strand Arts Centre at 14:00) is a tribute to Beijing though the eyes of a failed poet and restaurant critic who is going through a midlife crisis.
Belfast Film Festival closes its curtain and powers down its projector with Oscar-tipped Poor Things (Cineworld at 19:30) from director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Favourite) starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo.
And if none of those picks is to your taste, the full programme is available on the Belfast Film Festival website!
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