23/11/2023 - The programme director talked us through this year’s highlights, her curatorial strategy and the main industry events organised by Ireland’s oldest festival

We chatted to Anna Kopecka, who has been programme director of the Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) since 2020. Ireland’s oldest film festival is taking place this year from 9-26 November. We touched upon her programming choices, the festival’s different strands, and what it can offer to younger and older audiences alike, as well as to industry attendees.

Cineuropa: You took the helm of the Cork International Film Festival in 2020. What has changed so far, and what should attendees expect from this year’s edition?
Anna Kopecka: I started my work for CIFF as the programme director in January 2020, right before the pandemic, so the first year didn’t go as expected… We had to switch to a much smaller, online festival. Some of the already confirmed titles were not available online, and “gala screening” entailed me doing Q&As with the filmmakers from my living room over Zoom, but at the same time, it was an opportunity for us to build our own online platform and discover how our audiences would react to digital screenings and events. In the subsequent three years, we kept and adapted the digital part of the festival, but we were happy to see our audience coming back to cinemas.

We developed the new Parallax strand, which is focused on experimental and artist moving-image works. The other new and expanded programme strands are Guilty Pleasures and Culinary Cinema. The Spirit of the Festival Competition now presents first and second European features, and we have added a new Best of Irish Feature Competition. I shaped the selection of classic movies into a thematic retrospective. This year, [we chose] the theme “Dreamers and Visionaries”, and we are showing movies like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Almayer’s Folly [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Fitzcarraldo.

How would you describe the festival’s curatorial approach?
When it comes to programming, I believe in collaboration: I try to allow my colleagues some room in the programming team when it comes to film selection. We actively look for movies at other festivals and through sales agents, and we work closely with all Irish and UK distributors. We aim to bring to Cork and Ireland the best and most important movies that were made and premiered in the past year. These include titles from Cannes, the Berlinale, Rotterdam and Locarno, but also completely new discoveries from our open-call submissions. We always ask one question: is it really necessary to have this film in the programme and why?

Could you talk us through the highlights of this year’s edition?
We are opening with the great Poor Things [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Suzy Bemba
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile], which was co-produced by Ireland’s Element Pictures and will shortly be heading to theatres thanks to Searchlight Pictures, together with their other title All Of Us Strangers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and The Holdovers. These are the crowd-pleasers that we are happy to include in our programme and that are sure to sell out first, alongside our Irish fiction and documentary premieres.

I’m delighted that we’ll be hosting a special Cannes Directors’ Fortnight presentation this year, which artistic director Julien Rejl will come and present in person. [We’ll screen] The Goldman Case [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile], She Is Conann [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Mandico
film profile], A Prince [+see also:
film review
interview: Pierre Creton
film profile] and some other titles from this year’s Directors’ Fortnight selection. Besides our competitions, my personal highlights from the programme would be Youth (Spring) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Wang Bing, The Human Surge 3 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Eduardo Williams and Fallen Leaves [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Aki Kaurismaki.

The industry events include First Take, Doc Day Live, Doc Day Online and the Film Education Workshop. Could you please elaborate on these, and tell us what type of audience and speakers will be in attendance?
First Take is aimed at students and entry-level filmmakers, and hosts a variety of panels – for example, a career-spanning interview with director Paul Duane, whose new feature All You Need Is Death premieres at CIFF. We are excited to host a special Film Education Workshop, and a panel with film producer and CIFF patron Lord David Puttnam. Doc Day is a special event dedicated to documentary filmmaking with a slight focus on the Irish doc industry. This year’s Doc Day Key Study and gala screening present Ella Glendining’s wonderful Is There Anybody Out There? [+see also:
film review
film profile] All industry events are open upon reservation to anyone interested, and they try to connect established filmmakers with newcomers.

What about the parallel, non-film-related activities and events?
Actually, almost all of our activities are related to films! The non-screening offering includes the Cork film trail throughout the city, history- and food-focused walks, the film pub quiz, the exhibition “Another Country - Parallax Emerging Film Artist Exhibition” in Fitzgerald Park, and other events held at the Crawford Gallery or the Sirius Arts Centre. Also popular are our food events accompanying the screenings that are part of the Culinary Cinema strand, plus the workshops for children and schools.