Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Generation Fleadh, the youth branch of the Galway Film Fleadh will return from October 22-25, with a programme for audiences age 12 to 24.

Events will take place in the city’s Pálás and at venues around the county.

Films will include the documentary Circus Boy, which tells the story of a circus child and his extraordinary friendship with his 80-year-old great-grandfather.

Also screening is Marjolijn Prins’ acclaimed debut documentary Fantastique, a magic realist portrait of 14-year-old Fanta, a contortionist in a Guinea balancing school, which explores her love of acrobatics and how she cares for her ailing mother.

Other screenings will include Olmo, set in New Mexico in 1979, where a teenage boy navigates family responsibilities while longing for adventure. This was a hit at the Sundance Film.

Spilt Milk, the story of a precocious 11-year-old obsessed with the detective series Kojak in 1980s Dublin, whose brother suddenly goes missing, will be followed by a post-show discussion with actors Cillian Sullivan and Naoise Kelly.

The screening of Fidil Ghorm, about a young girl who believes that learning to play the fiddle will wake her father from a coma, will be followed by a post-show discussion with director Anne McCabe.

Where the Wind Comes From, Amel Guellaty’s Tunisian road-trip tale of two friends whose journey to an art contest tests their bond, will also be screened. It won the 2025 Generation Jury Award

There will be two retrospective screenings. The first marks the 30th anniversary of La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz’s groundbreaking portrait of Parisian youth. The festival will close with The Love Witch, Anna Biller’s cult feminist classic. This gothic, technicolour-styled horror-comedy will be followed by a panel discussion with members of the Generation Fleadh Council.

Three short programmes curated by the youth group will include World Shorts, showcasing films from France, Finland, Italy, Iran, the USA and Bulgaria; Gearrscannáin, with seven Irish-language shorts; and Generation Shorts, featuring 15 short films by young filmmakers from across Ireland.

Generation Fleadh will have afternoon and evening screenings, with educational films in German, Spanish, French and Irish, alongside the short film programmes and workshops.

Those workshops include an Assistant Director Bootcamp with Flavia Pordominsky and the NTA Crew West; a Script Supervisor Workshop with Eleanor McSherry; a Super 8 Film Workshop with Julien Dorgere, and a Designing Film Poster Workshop with Jonathan Carton.

As part of an outreach initiative. the festival will screen Berlinale award-winning film Christy and French film Les Choristes at Clifden’s Station House Theatre as part of Clifden Cinema Day.

Generation Fleadh will also bring 15 young people to visit the set of Ros na Rún in An Spidéal, where they will meet industry professionals and go behind the scenes of the popular Irish-language TV drama series.

Tickets for film screenings can be booked at galwayfilmfleadh.com or for more information, send an email to: generation@filmfleadh.ie

Pictured: Edith Lawlor as Molly and Aindrias de Staic who plays her father Ruairc in An Fidil Ghorm, which will be screened at Generation Fleadh.