Bloomsday Film Festival ()

Festival start: 12 June 2024      Festival end: 16 June 2024

'Whenever I am obliged to lie with my eyes closed I see a cinematograph going on and on and it brings back to my memory things I had almost forgotten.’ - James Joyce.

Ireland’s most literary film festival is back for its fifth year! The film festival was set up as a celebration of cinema, literature, and artistic innovation, inspired by the long reaching arm of Ireland’s patriarch of modernism, James Joyce. The festival is run in partnership with the Bloomsday Festival & the James Joyce Centre and will run between the 11th - 16th June, with screenings taking place at the historic James Joyce Centre and the IFI, as well as Online.

Like last year, we will celebrate the birthday of W.B Yeats on the 13th of June with a selection of Poetry and Literature short films. On the 14th, in keeping with Joyce’s radical and experimental spirit, we will screen the best Experimental Films. On the 15th, the anniversary of the publications of Dubliners, we will dedicate to Dublin with screenings of Joycean short films and Dublin Short Stories. We will also have many more special events between the 11th - 16th, as well as on Bloomsday itself of course, the 16th, and will screen the feature films in the evenings.

We want to encourage artistic innovation within the medium, artists who do things their own way, and films that seek to push the craft forward, as Joyce did so greatly within his own craft of literature.

Cash Prizes: 1,000€

All winners will garner our coveted handcrafted 'Joycean Glasses' trophy.

Best Joycean Short - Bronze Statuette

Best Joycean Documentary Short Bronze Statuette

Best Literature Short - Bronze Statuette

Best Irish Poetry Short - Bronze Statuette

Best International Poetry Short - Bronze Statuette

Best Irish Experimental Short - Bronze Statuette

Best International Experimental Short - Bronze Statuette

Best Dublin Short Story - Bronze Statuette

Best Feature - Gold Statuette

Best Overall Short - Gold Statuette & €1000 Cash Prize

No premiere requirements.

Short films must be below 30 minutes running time.

Submission Fee €15.

Feature films must be above 45 minutes running time. Submission fee €25.

If selected films will be shown online and during a live screening.

Online screeners only.

We will need a downloadable MP4 or MOV in h264 codec of your film if selected. We will also need access to stills, posters, text, trailers, for marketing purposes. Depending on Venues we may also need a DCP. Please try to send in your films in a reasonable file size as we only have a small technical team.

Films will still be considered for other categories if we deem them more suitable.

If not English language film subtitles must be in English.

If work is unfinished it MUST be completed by the 1st of June to be considered.

Filmmakers must own all rights to material. (Luckily Joyce is in the public domain so don't worry about that!)

Awards will be decided by a judging committee.