Irish Film Festival Boston

Celebrating the Best of Ireland
and the Irish on Screen

March 20-21, 2026

The Annual Irish Film Festival Boston is back at Somerville Theatre on March 20-21! These four films – three features and one Oscar-nominated short film  – underscore the talent and creativity of Irish actors, writers, producers, directors and film studios.  

Friday, March 20
7:30 – 9:30 p.m. | $18.36 – Buy Tix

Retirement Plan (plays with Báite)
2024/Ireland (7 minute short) plays with Báite (94 mins) | Director: John Kelly

In the throes of his overstimulated, energy-poor midlife, Ray (Domhnall Gleeson) fantasizes about everything he’d love to do in retirement, once he finally has the “time.”

2026 Oscar Nominated Best Animated Short Film

Báite
2025/Ireland (94 minutes) | Director: Ruán Magan | In Irish with English subtitles

Since the death of her parents, Peggy Casey has not only been running her father’s pub, Tigh Casey, located by a lake in a small rural Gaeltacht, she has been doing a great job of keeping it open. She does not understand how her sister Carla and her brothers Jerome and Hugo want to sell the pub and live their lives elsewhere. Peggy realizes that selling would mean the end of her family, and she is determined to stop them.

Just as things are coming to a head, with Hugo returning so they can finally vote on the future of Tigh Casey, a body is found under the receding waters of the lake. It is generally assumed to be a forgotten grave from the old cemetery, part of the ghost village located at the bottom of the lake. But when Detective Frank Ryan is sent from Dublin to investigate, it is understood that more is involved. Not only does the detective’s arrival indicate that the area is in bad shape, which Peggy is not happy about, but his questions also shed light on the Caseys’ difficult relationship.

$18.36 – Buy Tix

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Saturday, March 21
5:00 – 6:45 p.m. | $18.36 – Buy Tix

Beat The Lotto
2025/Ireland (5:00 p.m. – 85 minutes)  | Director: Ross Whitaker  | Director Ross Whitaker in person

When downtrodden 1980s Ireland inaugurated a National Lottery, the people began to dream. For Cork based mathematician Stefan Klincewicz, it was an obsession. Spotting a flaw in the system, he recruited a ragtag team of chancers, and masterminded an audacious plan to fix the draw and win the millions. The heist became public knowledge, and in a race against time, the lottery did everything they could to try and stop the steal, dividing the nation on a very public caper.
$18.36 – Buy Tix

Christy
7:00 – 9:00 p.m. | $18.36 – Buy Tix
2025/Ireland (7:00 p.m. – 99 minutes)  | Director: Brendan Canty

Two estranged brothers, with a checkered background in the care system, grapple with their past and resolve to unite over one summer in Cork city.
Seventeen-year-old Christy is at a crossroads. He’s just been thrown out of his pleasant suburban foster home and moved in with his estranged older brother Shane. As far as Shane is concerned this is a temporary arrangement, but Christy begins to feel at home on Cork’s working class north side. As he makes friends and begins to let the community in, he also reconnects with his past through his seemingly more corrupting extended family, despite Shane’s efforts to steer him away from this crowd. Shane wants something better for Christy at any cost – even if it means he has to push him away. After so many years apart, the brothers need to now reconcile their turbulent past whilst deciding what the future looks like.
$18.36 – Buy Tix

Or buy an all access pass and enjoy movies all weekend!