Cillian Murphy plays a father who witnesses Ireland’s church’s abusive workhouses for unwed mothers in an absorbing Dickensian story based on recent history.

Christmas 1985. Devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Murphy) discovers disturbing secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own. The film reveals truths about Ireland's Magdalene laundries - horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform "fallen young women." Adapted from the Booker Prize nominated novel by Claire Keegan, Cillian Murphy's outstanding acting – as has become the norm – anchors this moving film.

Ireland/Belgium 2024 Tim Mielants 98m

An offbeat, deeply emotional romance that brings together the magnetic pairing of Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. Known for his knack for heartfelt stories with a twist, director John Crowley (‘Brooklyn’) crafts a love story that’s as funny as it is poignant, exploring the strange intersections of fate, memory and connection.

The film follows two seemingly mismatched characters, Eleanor (Pugh) and Louis (Garfield), whose lives unexpectedly intertwine and change each other in profound ways. Their relationship unfolds in fragmented glimpses of joy, heartbreak and fleeting moments that capture the ups and downs of modern love. This is a quirky, beautifully shot exploration of what it means to find - and perhaps lose - “the one”. This is indie romance at its most moving and inventive.

UK 2024 John Crowley 115m

Winner of Best Director in the Certain Regard section of Cannes 2024, Rungano Nyoni brings us a tale where a young Zambian woman confronts long-buried family secrets.

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula (Susan Chardy) stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family. This is a daring picture that blends fantasy, stylised drama and elements of black comedy to explore the societal pressures that rewrite the truth. Nyoni is the Zambian-Welsh film-maker who in 2017 had a smash with her debut, the witty and distinctive misogyny fable ‘I Am Not a Witch’, and certainly a name to keep looking out for. (Some subtitles)

UK 2024 Rungano Nyoni 95m

A Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year, tasked with filling out magazine sweepstakes to earn food and clothing.

This is the incredible true story of aspiring comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu,

who after witnessing how others who participated in TV contests became overnight celebrities, decided to enter one himself. He ended up living for 15 months inside a small room, naked, starving and alone... and completely unaware that his life was being broadcast on national TV to over 17 million viewers a week. This is a snapshot of a time when reality television was in its infancy, and no one paid much attention to the ethics of extremity for the sake of entertainment. We see how Hamatsu has tried to deal with the aftermath of the experiment, and cannot help but feel a lot of empathy for a person who was put through hell just to make millions of people laugh. (Some subtitles)

UK 2023 Clair Titley 93m