On Friday 30th – Saturday 31st January, Imbolg: Women Who Terrify Film Festival - in partnership with Griffith College Dublin - presents three blocks of murderous, blood-curdling and darkly unsettling short cinema, featuring local talent alongside shorts from around the world.
Expect cannibalism, betrayal, witchcraft, psychosis - and stories that will crawl under your skin and lay eggs there.
Listen to our podcast with Imbolg filmmakers here.
Check out the full line up here.
Imbolg Shorts Block A
Friday 30th January, 18:30
Our first shorts screening comprises 11 international and Irish films, followed by a Q&A with the directors and writers in attendance in Griffith College Dublin Main Campus. Tickets €4 – €5. Book yours here.
Aicha
Wri/Dir: Sanaa El Alaoui
Morocco, 25:00
A 17-year-old girl struggles with an emotionally distant mother as her life takes a tragic turn. The mother joins a mystic ceremony to face her grief and the lost bond with her daughter.
Would You Rather
Wri/Dir: Sophie O'Donovan
Ireland, 11:20
After recovering from a mental breakdown, a young woman shows up uninvited to a friend’s gathering, where a game of Would You Rather threatens to push her over the edge.
LEECHES
Wri/Dir: Carla Linda Vitagliano
Italy, 15:00
In a small suburban town in the 1990s lives a family of only women: the mother, the elder daughter Giulia, and the younger daughter Lucia. One day, a mysterious young man, Andrea, moves to the town and begins to associate with the family. The three women become enamoured with him, each seeing him behind the others' backs.
We're Already Here
Wri/Dir: Mairead Dewar
Ireland, 3:20
We're Already Here is an autobiographical, experimental poetry film that explores the experience of being trans in the modern world from a personal perspective, through the eyes of a trans-nonbinary person in their mid-20s. It is a deeply personal and vulnerable look at how shame, public opinion, and the need for conformity shape self-perception and how we can break away and find freedom in a world that seeks to further marginalize trans people.
Devil’s Reflection
Dir: Kamran Mohammadi, Sahar Mirzaeianfar
Islamic Republic of Iran, 9:17
A school janitor who is hard of hearing is attacked and harassed by demonic spirits on a rainy night.
Rise of the Dead: Sluts vs Zombies
Wri/Dir: Emma Jacqueline
4:30
An aspiring porn actress is confronted by her religious sister—who happens to be on the cusp of turning into a zombie.
I Remember You (Muistan sinut)
Wri/Dir: Marjo Viitala
Finland, 10:00
A group of young friends arrives at a secluded beach for a weekend of camping. As night falls, strange events unsettle them. When a local man vanishes, they become suspects, questioned by authorities who believe they know more than they admit. But is the true darkness lurking in the shadows… or within?
Orange Tree (Оранжевое дерево)
Wri/Dir: Olga Baulina
Russian Federation, 16:00
Inspired by W. B. Yeats’ poem The Stolen Child, this animated short tells the story of Yolash, a lonely boy caught between his parents’ quarrels. One day he follows a mysterious bird-girl and enters a world of half-bird, half-human creatures, where he unexpectedly becomes part of their ancient ritual.
ShadowFable
Wri/Dir: Margaret Kane-Rowe
Ireland, 2:48
Not all who wander are lost, some are damned. A young woman wanders into a supernatural realm where evil feeds on fear.
Tabby Daly
Dir: John Doherty, Conor Kilkelly
Wri: Conor Kilkelly
Ireland, 16:00
As the potato blight tears through a rural community, a charitable woman helps young boys emigrate in search of a better life. But as quiet doubts begin to surface, questions emerge about her true intentions.
A Lobster Named Desire (Una Langosta Llamada Deseo)
Dir: Sol Moreno, Risseth Yanguez
Panama, 17:00
Conchita, a lively, spirited girl, is invited to her favorite restaurant by Renzo, a fastidious and somewhat simple-minded guy who intends to propose marriage.
Get your tickets for Strand A here.
Imbolg Shorts Block B
Saturday 31st January, 11:30
Our second shorts screening is comprised of 7 international and Irish films, followed by a Q&A with the directors and writers in attendance in Griffith College Dublin Main Campus. Tickets €4 – €5. Book yours here.
Play House (过家家)
Wri/Dir: Xinyi Cao
China, 20:00
Xiao Lin and Chuan Yu are lesbian lovers who work in the soft porn industry. One day, a man hires them to play as his wife and daughter. However, the relationship among the three gradually grows tense.
Stolen Sealskin
Wri/Dir: Sarah Lou Kinneen
Ireland, 7:12
Drawing from the Migratory Legend of the Seal Woman, or Selkie, this experimental short film reimagines an enduring tale that drifts between myth and memory.
The Cure
Wri/Dir: Sarah Grey
Ireland, 14:20
A young skeptic begrudgingly visits a faith healer to cure her migraines but ends up getting more than she bargained for.
Get Out!
Wri/Dir: Anne Marie Kelly
Ireland, 4:19
Experiencing anxiety, depression and self esteem issues? An ever increasing factor in emotional distress is... Social Media. Here, we dance with the theme, the Ancient Triple Goddess representing Social Media, and how it plays with our heads. Can the answer be as simple as our Leading Character decides?
Lamb
Wri/Dir: Sinéad O'Loughlin
Ireland, 15:00
An ordinary day takes a sinister turn for a woman and her child when a stranger walks into their isolated rural home.
Postpartum
Wri/Dir: Tania Notaro
Ireland, 13:58
Life takes a dark turn when a young woman is faced with the horrors of motherhood. The expectations of motherhood become spectres which haunt recent mother Mary, her psychosis rendered through warping visuals and an unnerving soundscape.
Clean Girl
Wri/Dir: Emily Kent
United States, 14:02
A TikTok-obsessed woman copes with a recent breakup, all the while something's lurking under her floorboards…
Book your tickets for Strand B here.
Imbolg Shorts C
Saturday 31st January, 14:30
Our third shorts screening is comprised of 11 international and Irish films, followed by a Q&A with the directors and writers in attendance in Griffith College Dublin Main Campus. Tickets €4 – €5.
I Can’t Go On
Wri/Dir: Laoisa Sexton
Ireland, 12:40
A kid's party entertainer must go to extraordinary heights to escape a house of horror.
Voyeur
Dir: Maryam Hashempour
Wri: Mohammadreza Seif
Islamic Republic of Iran, 5:52
A girl enters a coffee shop while waiting for her friend. An unknown number sends her a photo of her, taken just before she enters the coffee shop. The unknown person sends the photo several times until…
you're not perfect
Wri/Dir: Mary O'Leary
Ireland, 11:33
This film demonstrates how societal expectations can influence one’s identity and to gain a deeper understanding of how certain aspects of societal norms shape our lives. This is my intense perspective on societal expectations from birth.
All Well. All Good. All Perfect.
Dir: Dubheasa Lanipekun
Wri: Dubheasa Lanipekun, Lara Agius
11:28
A visit to a peculiar fertility clinic becomes anything but routine for expectant mother Diana, as she is driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child.
Recipe (Talunang Manok)
Dir: Marissa Aroy
Wri: Niall McKay
Philippines / Ireland, 11:00
Socorro, a domestic worker, heads home to the Philippines when her daughter goes missing, only to discover the bigger threat to her family's well-being is her husband's gambling addiction to cockfighting.
Repertoire of Death
Dir: Guadalupe Arellanes
United States, 5:35
A lucid dream leads to a dance with Death. Photographed on 16mm, Repertoire of Death blends found sounds with rarely heard music from the personal archives of Yma Sumac, "Queen of Exotica", in order to blur the boundaries between past/present, dead/alive, and dream/waking.
Hellwriting
Dir: Abril Garcia, Guilliana Ramirez
Spain, 0:59
Watch out for the bad handwriting.
on leaving you
Wri/Dir: Vanessa Gildea
Ireland, 9:09
on leaving you is a personal experimental short film that examines the cyclical nature of departure and memory, of death and rebirth, and personal complicity in the horror of living, suggesting that what we attempt to leave behind inevitably reappears in the places we arrive.
In the Season Thereof
Wri/Dir: Nadia Moosa
United States, 15:00
Thrown into a new town senior year, Mark has left Utah, the Mormon Church, and a two-parent household. He quickly falls for a local girl, but as religious guilt and obsession consume him, he's left with nothing but a lingering citrus stench.
Wrath
Wri/Dir: Suri Grennell
Ireland, 9:05
At the precipice of womanhood and plagued with foreboding dreams, Maria must confront the mistrust of her family as a strange epidemic sweeps through Ireland.
Exuviae
Wri/Dir: Anne Ciecko
United States, 2:35
The latest unexpected interspecies home "invasion" and resultant sleepless nights lead to recognition of the fragility of bodies, precarious existences and escape impulses, abject entrapments and perilous material accretions: the parallel and intersecting lives of humans and insects.
Book your tickets for Strand C here.
Follow Imbolg on socials
@ImbolgFilmFest / #ImbolgFilmFest
X / Facebook / LinkedIn / Instagram / Bsky / Threads / Newsletter / Mastodon
Gemma
