Galway Film Fleadh

The Galway Film Fleadh (pronounced [fʲlʲaː]; Irish for "festival") is an international film festival founded in 1989 as part of the Galway Arts Festival. Describing itself as Ireland’s leading film festival, the event is held every July in Galway, Ireland.^[1]

Galway Film Fleadh

Location	Galway, Ireland
Founded	1989
Most recent	2025
Festival date	8–13 July 2025
Language	English, Irish, others
Website	galwayfilmfleadh.com

In 2022, a MovieMaker magazine panel of U.S. filmmakers, critics and industry executives included the festival on its list of the "50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee".^[2]

Background

The festival was founded in 1989,^[3] as part of the Galway Arts Festival and was held at the Claddagh Palace until that venue closed in 1995.^[4] The festival has become known as a venue for the premiere of domestic Irish films, but as an international festival, it also exhibits foreign film works.^[5][6]

The festival includes the Galway Film Fair, a focused film market which allows filmmakers with projects in development to meet with a large number of potential producers, financiers, and distributors.^[7]

In 2006 the Galway Film Fleadh was the site of the first screening of John Carney's film Once.^[7]

Since 1995 the Fleadh has also conducted the Junior Film Fleadh, held in November and oriented to youth films and student audiences.^[4][8]

Festival editions

The 37th edition was held from 8 July to 13 July, featured 31 World Premieres, 11 International/ European Premieres and 46 Irish Premieres from 44 countries, featuring 96 feature films in total. It closed with the screening of The Life of Chuck, by Mike Flanaga. The Best International Feature Film award was won by Dragonfly by Paul Andrew Williams and Best International Documentary by Gerry Adams – A Ballymurphy Man by Trisha Ziff. The Best Irish Film award was given to Christy by Brendan Canty.^[9]