Scéal Eile - Irish Film Festival 2026

Scéal Eile is committed to presenting the best of Irish cinema in Belgium.The festival is presented in collaboration with the Irish Film Institute’s IFI International programme and supported by Culture Ireland.

See what's on the programme below:

In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote The Country Girls, the first of a sexually-frank trilogy of novels. Though the books were banned in Ireland, O’Brien became an international literary sensation, gaining fame and notoriety. 

This documentary, completed shortly before her death, features extracts from her journals (read with verve by Jessie Buckley), contributions from Gabriel Byrne, Anne Enright and other luminaries, and a remarkable final interview with Edna, now aged 93 as she reflects with dignity and candour on her extraordinary life

Four estranged siblings return home to the West of Ireland after the death of their father where they attempt to navigate inheritance, grief, and long-buried grudges. Trapped together in their childhood home with the ghost of their father looming in every shadow, the fragile family bonds that have held them together are threatening to fall apart.

This feature debut from Adam O’Keefe and Edwin Mullane, filmed in the harsh winter landscapes of Sligo and Leitrim won Best Irish First Feature at the 2025 Galway Film Fleadh.

Shoo leaves her pregnant girlfriend to care for Peig, a cantankerous old woman who has incarcerated herself in a big house on the edge of a remote village. As the two develop a deep connection, Shoo is infected by the old woman’s paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors of her own past.

Aislinn Clarke’s haunting folk horror is deftly woven through with contemporary concerns about mental health, inherited trauma, and the fraught realm of motherhood.

Raymond is a man stuck in a dead-end job and living with middle-class students with whom he has nothing in common. His life changes when he reunites with his charismatic but volatile former foster brother, Jerdy

Celtic Utopia tells the story of a new Ireland and its vibrant music scene, but also that of a post-colonial society wrestling with its heritage. The Irish folk music renaissance sees artists coming from punk, hip-hop, and beyond, rediscovering an ancient tradition and taking it in unexpected directions.

In Saipan, directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn offer an account of one of the most infamous episodes in Irish sport. Having qualified for the 2002 World Cup, led by talismanic captain Roy Keane and under the management of Mick McCarthy, the Republic of Ireland team arrive on the titular island to prepare for their campaign. Driven and uncompromising, Keane grows increasingly frustrated with the poor resources and his teammates’ lack of commitment. Open hostility quickly breaks out between him and the ever-more downtrodden and woebegone McCarthy in a film with appeal far beyond that of the football audience.

Three unlikely women rob a rural Irish Credit Union. A backwards chronology unravels what went wrong. This award winning crime noir is a truly original piece of Irish cinema.

When a body is found in the receding waters of a rural lake, the local community is deeply unsettled. Dublin Detective Sergeant Frank Ryan arrives to investigate and uncovers disturbing truths.