Irish Film Festival Archives

This is a banner for a review of Ready or Not. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Ready or Not’ Review – Claire Frances Byrne’s Film on Growing Up

December 11, 2025 by Sarah Manvel

Ready or Not tackles a difficult topic – very young teenagers playing very adult games – with a level of sympathy for their misadventures which makes the tough subject easy to watch. Writer Lynn Ruane and director Claire Frances Byrne talked at the Irish Film Festival London screening I attended …

This is a banner for a review of Aontas. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Aontas’ Film Review: Irish Language Thriller Is Worth Watching

December 11, 2025December 11, 2025 by Sarah Manvel

This clever no-budget thriller is automatically recommended by me because it’s in the Irish language. Its aspirational depiction of life entirely inside the Irish language, which rarely happens in real life, is just wonderful to see. It is also a heist movie, with three women (two of whom are middle-aged) …