Location Galway, Ireland Festival date July Website galwayfilmfleadh.com | Founded 1989 Language English, Irish, others | |
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The Galway Film Fleadh ([fʲlʲɑː], Irish for "festival") is an international film festival founded in 1989 as part of the Galway Arts Festival. Describing itself as Ireland’s leading film festival, the event is held every July in Galway city in Ireland.
The Galway Film Fleadh is both a platform for international cinema in Ireland and an advocate for Irish national cinema. Uniquely in Ireland, it is also an industry festival, with many industry events taking place under the name of the Galway Film Fair, including conferences, screenings, masterclasses, networking events, Ireland’s longest-running pitching competition and Ireland’s only film marketplace.
In 2014, a MovieMaker magazine panel of U.S. filmmakers, critics and industry executives included the Galway Film Fleadh on its list of the "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World".
Background
The festival was founded in 1989, as part of the Galway Arts Festival and was held at the Claddagh Palace until that venue closed in 1995. The festival has become known as a venue for the premiere of domestic Irish films, but as an international festival, it also exhibits foreign film works.
In 2006 the Galway Film Fleadh was the site of the first screening of John Carney's film Once.
The festival includes the Galway Film Fair, a focused film market which allows filmmakers with projects in development to meet with a large number of potential producers, financiers, and distributors.
Since 1995 the Fleadh has also conducted the Junior Film Fleadh, held in November and oriented to youth films and student audiences.