IFI in Dublin celebrate their 25th anniversary will a full day of free cinema

Happy Birthday, Irish Film Institute! You don’t look a day over 20!

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of being in their Temple Bar premises, the IFI are giving lovers of movies a full day of free cinema, so all you have to do is be one of the first to get them, and they’re all yours!

On Saturday 16 September, the choice of films on offer will be very impressive, and tickets for each screening will be made available one hour before the film is due to start, and since they’re completely free, you just have to be there in person to get them. That’s all there is to it.

The movie schedule is as follows:

13.00 The Mighty Ducks

It has been 25 years since this Emilio Estevez is forced to become a kids hockey coach. The dictionary definition of a family favourite.

13.15 The Big Sleep

A proper old-school Hollywood classic, with Howard Hawks directing Bogart and Bacall, this is exactly the kind of whip-smart thriller they just don’t seem to make anymore.

13.30 Speedy

Infamous silent movie star Harold Lloyd’s final foray into the world of silent films is filled with the kind of unique visual humour that made him the equal to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

15.10 Star Trek: The Motion Picture 

Ten years after the show was cancelled, the enduring popularity of Kirk, Spock and co. led to the first Star Trek movie, and with the TV show heading to Netflix this year for the latest iteration, now is as good a time as any to get reintroduced to the original crew.

15.30 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid 

Modern day classic comedian Steve Martin is cut into the old-school hard-boiled dramas for a comedy that sees him play a detective “alongside” the likes of Bette Davis and Cary Grant. Pure hilarity.

15.40 Intermission

One of the best Irish movies of the modern generation sees Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy, Colm Meaney and a host of other Irish at-the-time up-and-comers get mixed up in a crime plot involving moustaches and brown sauce.

17.30 Sorcerer 

One of the greatest nail-biting thrillers ever made, directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection), it involves four truck-drivers transporting unstable nitroglycerine across treacherous Latin America roads to put out a massive oil fire.

18.00 Miller’s Crossing

A highlight in a CV filled with highlights by The Coen Brothers, with Gabriel Byrne playing the right hand man to prohibition era mobster Albert Finney, and their falling out which sets an unstoppable series of events into tragic motion.

18.10 Delicatessen 

French visualist Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Alien: Resurrection) tells the story of a butcher who holds power over the neighbourhood because he controls their food supply. But the source of his meat is horrific, and when his daughter falls in love with his new assistant, things get even more complicated.

20.00 Weirdos

A teenager runs away from him with his girlfriend to be reunited with his estranged mother, but the road trip on the way is quite unlike any you’ve seen before, partly because his imaginary friend is Andy Warhol, and partly because it is set in the visually stunning but completely stark Nova Scotia.

20.20 Audience Choice 

Head here to to vote for one of the following to win the Audience Choice viewing: A Date For Mad Mary, American Honey, Embrace Of The Serpent, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, I Daniel Blake, Manchester By The Sea, Moonlight, Paterson, The Childhood Of A Leader, Toni Erdmann.

We know what we’d vote for… (cough, Toni Erdmann, cough).

20.30 Gala Cine-concert: The Cohens and Kellys 

The 1926 comedy about an Irish family and a Jewish family feuding in 1920s New York will be accompanied by multi-award-winning accordionist Dermot Dunne and saxophonist Nick Roth, Artistic Director of the Yurodny Ensemble, to provide a live musical accompaniment to the film. Tickets for this screening will be made available from 18.30 on the day.

Meanwhile, there is also a host of behind-the-scenes unique tours and exhibitions, and to secure a place on those, you just need to email Sharon Corrigan ([email protected]) or calling 01 679 5744.

The event schedule is also here:

13.00 Digital Restoration Suite Tour

13.45 Digital Restoration Suite Tour

14.00 Projection Booth Tour

15.00 Digital Restoration Suite Tour

15.15 Projection Booth Tour

15.45 Digital Restoration Suite Tour

16.00 Projection Booth Tour

16.30 Projection Booth Tour

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