CIFF2026 - Shorts Program 3

Sunday, March 1 • 10:00 AM • T2 • Approx. runtime: 79 min.

NO MEAN CITY

Two workmen and an apprentice drive through the city at night, replacing old sodium street lights with LED. Beneath their glow, the city grapples with change, as progress marches on.

DIR/SCR Ross McClean; PROD Conal Clapper, Heidi Fleisher & Mike Paterson; DOP Ronnie McQuillan. Northern Ireland, 2025, color, 14 min. In English. NOT RATED

METEORIC

When an artist is hit by a meteor, the result is a “painting” that captivates the world, but the people want more.

DIR/SCR Paul Ó Muiris; PROD Anne-Flore Aussant; SCORE Leo Pearson. Ireland, 2025, color, 7 min. No dialogue. NOT RATED

THE ASSASSINATION OF MICHAEL D. HIGGINS

Frankie, a burnt-out hospital orderly, decides to leave with a bang. On his final shift, he indulges a long-term patient’s fantasy—treating him as if he truly is the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. But what begins as a harmless gesture is met with abject horror. As fantasy bleeds into reality, the power dynamics shift and the institution’s cold machinery lashes back. What began as a sincere farewell ends in reckoning, when empathy crosses a line the system cannot tolerate.

DIR/SCR Dave Minogue; SCR John Doran; PROD Natalie Britton. Ireland, 2025, color, 13 min. In English. NOT RATED

BOOBS

This bold and deeply intimate short documentary reclaims the narrative around representation of women's bodies in Ireland. After years of therapy confronting her struggles with body image, Irish artist Geraldine Carton embarks on a bold project—to paint 100 nude breast portraits from the female perspective—embracing the spectrum of race, gender identity, disability, age, and sexual orientation. This is a radical step in a country which has had a long history of conservative attitudes towards women’s bodies. Through the honest stories of the women who step forward to be painted, BOOBS becomes more than a documentary—it’s a call for visibility, a platform for resilience, and an uprising for radical self-love.

DIR/SCR Nicola Leddy; PROD Zlata Filipovic, Anna Rodgers; DOP Alba Fernandez; SCORE Eimear MacCarrick. Ireland, 2025, color, 16 min. In English. NOT RATED

PULSE

After a heart transplant, Heather returns to her quiet life in rural Northern Ireland. But something lingers—a melody she can’t place, and words from a language and community that have always felt foreign to her. As she follows their quiet pull, she begins to sense the trace of another life, and a connection that reaches across a divided past.

DIR Sam Nutt; SCR Dan Pringle; PROD Joan Burney-Keatings. UK & Ireland, 2025, color, 16 min. In English and Irish with English subtitles. NOT RATED