Step Back in Time with Cork International Film Festival
This Heritage Week, we’re celebrating Cork’s rich film history with two special events that look back at the people, places and stories that have shaped cinema in the city.
Join us for a guided walking tour through Cork’s Victorian Quarter or explore the Festival’s past from home with a newly restored archive film from 1965.
Moving Pictures: A Historic City Walk
- 6.00pm, Friday 21 August
- Outside Gallagher’s, on the corner of Bridge St. and MacCurtain St., Cork
- Duration: 90 minutes
Take a walk through Cork’s cinematic history with architectural historian Danielle O’Donovan as we explore some of the city’s best-known cinema landmarks, including The Everyman and the former Coliseum Cinema.
Drawing on photographs, stories and material from the CIFF Digital Archive, the tour offers a fresh look at the streets, buildings and venues that helped shape generations of film lovers in Cork.
We’ll finish the evening at the historic Metropole Hotel, in the heart of the VQ.
Booking
The walking tour is pay what you wish, but spaces are limited so advance booking is essential.
You can also book through the myCIFF app.
Explore the Route in Your Own Time
Can’t make the guided walk?
Throughout Heritage Week, we’ll also be releasing a free walking tour podcast, so you can discover Cork’s cinema history whenever it suits you.
The podcast follows the same route and includes stories, archive material and local history from the tour.
Watch a Rare 1965 Festival Film
To mark Heritage Week, we’re making Féile Scannán Chorcaighe, Cork Film Festival available to watch online for free.
Originally made in 1965 to celebrate the Festival’s tenth anniversary, the short documentary captures Cork city and the Festival as they were sixty years ago.
The film was rediscovered by CIFF Director & CEO Fiona Clark in 2018 and later restored and digitised in collaboration with Dr Ciara Chambers from UCC’s Department of Film & Screen Media and the Irish Film Institute Irish Film Archive. It premiered during our landmark 70th Festival in 2025, and now we’re delighted to share it with audiences everywhere.
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Meet Your Guide
Danielle O’Donovan has been Director of the Butter Museum since 2025 and specialises in architectural and built heritage.
She previously led the Ports, Past and Present research project at University College Cork, has worked at Nano Nagle Place, and has taught architectural history at university level. Her work focuses on bringing Cork’s history to life through heritage, museums and digital projects.
Heritage Week 2026
Heritage Week takes place from 15–23 August, celebrating Ireland’s built, cultural and natural heritage through events across the country.
CIFF’s Heritage Week programme is kindly supported by Cork City Council’s Local Community Heritage & Biodiversity Grant Scheme 2026.
