The Athlone Film Festival

14/04/2026

Introducing the official poster for The Athlone Film Festival 2026!

On the night of the 24th we will have our networking and honorary screening event in the Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone Campus, kicking off at 18:30 with complimentary tea's coffee's and light refreshments. This event is sponsored by the TUS business faculty and free and open to all. Book your spot for free here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/filmmakers-networking-event-tickets-1986634596557?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

The following morning on the 25th of April in the Radisson hotel Athlone, we have Rachel Moloney with a brand new workshop entitled, Anatomy of a scene: how to write dynamic scenes and compelling dialogue. Limited availability for these tickets so book early to avoid disappointment here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anatomy-of-a-scene-how-to-write-dynamic-scenes-and-compelling-dialogue-tickets-1986633208405?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Last but certainly not least, on the night of the 25th we have The Athlone Film Festival screening event! We have eight brilliant short films for you this year from across Ireland and abroad. The most films we've ever had in the screening! So to compensate we are going to have a short intermission in the middle, a slightly shorter panel discussion at the end, and no audience QnA this year. However, tea's and coffee's are served at the end and the audience are encouraged to stay and ask questions during that time. It'll all take place in the Athlone IMC cinema and you can book your seat here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-athlone-film-festival-2026-tickets-1986352226982?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Poster design by Callum Patrick O'Brien.

01/04/2026

🎉🎥🎬The Athlone Film Festival is back for it's eighth year this April the 25th.🎬🎥🎉
Taking place in the IMC cinema Athlone at 19:30 it's our largest programme yet with eight stellar films from across Ireland and abroad!
Huge thank you to the All Ireland Drama Festival for making this possible!

Checkout our trailer below and you can book tickets for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-athlone-film-festival-2026-tickets-1986352226982?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

We'll also be having our networking/screening event in TUS Friday night the 24th of April. Free entry with further details on that and our writers workshop to follow!

Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone
Lunar Horizon Productions
FilmFreeway



https://youtu.be/91yEuj9bJuQ?si=0EId8gvDYbPbW4Ne

TICKETS ON SALE HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-athlone-film-festival-2026-tickets-1986352226982?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-med...

05/02/2026

We are delighted to announce the official selection and honourable mentions of this years 2026 Athlone Film Festival!

Official Selection in no particular order:
The Death Notice of Eamon McCarty
John Gunning: Big In Japan
Shelter
REM
Gan Canny
Tabharthas
Voiceless
and
The Art of Resistance The Art of Sumud

Honourable mentions in no particular order:
Kill The Babies!
Our Father
The Other Mother
The Girl At The End of The Garden
Splanctha
and
Tymek

A sincere congratulations to all the filmmakers! We'll see you all on April 25th in the IMC cinema Athlone.

Tickets on sale soon.
Honourable mentions will be screened on the 24th of April in TUS from 7pm, free entry.

25/11/2025

Here is a shot from The Athlone Film Festival 2023 panel discussion.

This was the first year we opened submissions up to the general public. Before that, submissions to the festival was by invitation only and we were greatly impressed by the overwhelming response we received. Which then got eclipsed by the following two years with record breaking submission numbers in both 2024 and 2025! Will we break that record again this year?

Starting at the top left we have:
Maureen ‘Mo’ O’Connell, director of the drama “Hum”
Jessica Courtney Leen, writer/director/producer/lead actress of the drama “Not My Sister”
Callum Patrick O’Brien, writer/director of the horror “All Alone Here”

Bottom row on the left we have:
Joshua Donoghue, writer/producer/lead actor of the social realist drama “Agape”
Ethan Donoghue, director of the social realist drama “Agape”
And Mo O’Connell again.

Other films screened that year were “You’re Not Home” and “Eggshells”.

A big shout out and thank you to all the filmmakers who came down and helped kick off the public submissions era of The Athlone Film Festival!

Submissions for next year’s festival (2026) are open right now on FilmFreeway! Follow this link to submit: https://filmfreeway.com/TheAthloneFilmFestival

Closing date for submissions is the 12th of December 2025.

21/10/2025

And we are back ladies and gentlemen! The 2026 Athlone Film Festival is officially open for submissions until December 12th 2025.

You can submit your short film by following this link to our FilmFreeway page: https://filmfreeway.com/TheAthloneFilmFestival

Submission is only ten euro and successful applicants will get a screening at the Athlone IMC cinema on April 25th 2026. Those who receive an honourable mention will be invited to take part in our networking event the day before and screen their film at TUS Athlone.

Read the rules carefully and submit your film as soon as you can! If you have any questions about the festival you can get in touch with us on Instagram, Facebook, or email at [email protected].

We would like to wish all filmmakers the very best of luck!

All Ireland Drama Festival FilmFreeway

The Athlone Film Festival 2026 runs in conjunction with the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival. The Festival is a annual screening of very high quality short...

15/10/2025

The group shot of our 2025 filmmakers panel, which was our biggest one to date, with seven filmmakers traveling down to take part! Like previous years, it took place immediately after the screening in the Athlone IMC cinema.

Starting on the left we have:

Kathy Raftery, director of the documentary “Roscommon Snapshot”.
Desmond Lynch, writer/director of the thriller “Trespass”.
Gregory O’Reilly, writer/director of the thriller “Upper Current”.
Táine King, co-writer/director of the historical fantasy drama “The Wilde Sisters”.
Carol Tormey, cinematographer of “The Wilde Sisters”.
David Qualter, producer of the drama “Vanilla”.
Declan Curran, writer/producer/actor of the drama comedy “Dear Imelda”.
And finally the host David Toolan.

The film “A Simple Killing” was also screened this year.

A fantastic group of filmmakers with a fantastic selection of films! A huge thank you to all the filmmakers who came down!

Submissions for next year’s festival (2026) are open right now! Follow this link to our submissions page: https://filmfreeway.com/TheAthloneFilmFestival

The Athlone film Festival runs in conjuction with the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival.

09/10/2025

Here are a few stills from the short documentary "The Last Miner" which screened at the very first Athlone Film Festival all the way back in 2019! The doc was directed by Luke Brabazon and featured the coal miner Jim Power.

Luke was the very first film maker to come down to the festival and take part in our now famous post screening panel discussion. His short documentary went onto win best student film at the 2019 Manchester International Film Festival and best student short at the 2019 Emerging Director Awards in Dublin.

A fun bit of trivia about the film is that when Luke went down on the first two days to film with Jim, it turned out to be the very last two days Jim ever mined at that site. Making the film a genuine piece of history that otherwise would of gone undocumented if it wasn't for Luke. Also it makes the name of the documentary more literal then you first think!

Over the following weeks, Luke recorded almost 12 hours of conversation with Jim about his life working in the mines, which was then edited down to only the essentials, making it into the 7 minute film you see today. You can follow Luke on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to see what he's up to next.

A huge thank you to Luke for being the first film maker to come down and take part in our panel discussion!

Other films screened that year were: That Old Feeling, Pernicio, Breast Friends, and Growing Alice.

Submissions for next years festival (2026) will be open on the 15th of September 2025.

07/10/2025

Here are a few shots from our very first networking event hosted by the Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone back in 2024. However, this is not your run of the mill meet and greet. It actually functions more like a second screening for films that receive an honourable mention from the festival. Giving applicants a second chance at a screening and it gives us an opportunity to celebrate more film makers!

At the 2024 networking event we had David Butler, Tom Johnson, Marie Devine, Conor English, Christian Craughwell and Andy Nolan. Each film maker is invited to speak about their film and we do a brief interview lasting two or three minutes.

The films screened that year were: The Light Within, A Bedouin Dream, Vanishing Grace, Icky Gacky, Time of Need, and Edimus.
A massive thank you to all the film makers who came down and took part!

Submissions for next years festival (2026) will be open on the 15th of October 2025.

Photo credits: Eric Molloy.