21-25 March. The 11th IRISH FILM FESTA, the only Italian film festival dedicated completely to Irish cinema, takes place from 21-25 March at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.
This year's competition section, reserved for short films produced or co-produced in Ireland, comprises 16 works, spanning various genres: drama (Selina Cartmell’s The Date, winning short at the Galway Film Fleadh 2017; Tristan Heanue’s A Break in the Clouds; Amy-Joyce Hasting’s QED), comedy (Gustav by Denis Fitzpatrick e Ken Williams, Marky’s Bad Week by Daniel Holmwood); fictional documentary (Edward Cleary’s Lava Lisa, Pádraig Conaty’s You’re not a Man at All).

Also of note is the presence of big names among the cast of the short films: Patrick Bergin is the solo protagonist of Linda Bhreathnach’s Native, while Stuart Graham stars in the kidnapping thriller The Captors by Chris Baugh.
The selected animated shorts are: Coranna by Steve Woods; Louise Bagnall’s Late Afternoon; Aoífe Doyle’s Departure; and Dillon Brannick’s The Line.

Festival organisers are "very happy with the submissions this year, both in terms of quality as well as quantity", according to artistic director Susanna Pellis who added that the large amount of entries from Northern Ireland "reinforced the 'All Ireland' spirit of our festival." For full details see website.