Athlone Film Festival to take place this weekend

The Athlone Film Festival, which has become one of the regular fringe events for the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival, will for the first time take place over the course of two days this weekend.

Previously it had always been a one-day event, but the 2025 iteration will get underway this evening, May 2, with a networking gathering in the Earl of Ross lecture theatre on the TUS Athlone campus.

This will start at 7pm, and is expected to run for two to three hours, screening a number of short films with representatives from those films in attendance as well. This is a completely free event, with refreshments being served from 6.30pm.

On Saturday morning, May 3, a screenwriting workshop will be held as part of the festival, which will be hosted by Rachel Moloney, an award-winning short film writer and long term script editor with RTÉ. The workshop will be held in the Luan Gallery and is expected to take place from 11am to 1pm.

On Saturday evening the official Athlone Film Festival screening will take place. Starting at 8pm, in the IMC Cinema, it will involve the screening of seven high-quality short films.

These include the Jason Branagan-directed 'A Simple Killing', which was filmed in Shinrone, Offaly, early last year, and 'A Roscommon Snapshot', directed by Kathy Raftery, about three Roscommon men who served in the US Army during the Vietnam War.

The other short films to be featured are 'The Wilde Sisters', directed by Táine King, 'Trespass', directed by Desmond Lynch, 'Upper Current', directed by Gregory O'Reilly, 'Vanilla', directed by Tony O'Donnell, and 'Dear Imelda', directed by Árón Holden.

The screening will run until approximately 10.30pm, and afterwards there will be a short panel discussion with the film makers as well as some light refreshments.