city Houston, county Norman: Celebs Rumors

The Banshees of Inisherin already capturing a fair share of the major awards and with possibly a decent shot at some Oscar love, the focus on Irish cinema is hotter than ever.Of course, Solas Nua, Washington, D.C.’s hub for contemporary Irish culture and performing arts, has been training its eye on films emerging from the Emerald Isle for quite some time now.This is the 17th year they’ve curated the Capital Irish Film Festival (CIFF), and this year’s four-day festival, held March 2 to 5 at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland, is arguably the largest in the group’s history.The festival opens with a massive get — The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin), which is up for an Oscar in the Best International Film category.Director Colm Bairéad’s coming-of-age drama, is set in rural Ireland in the early ’80s, as a young girl struggles with a dysfunctional, impoverished homelife and finds new life when sent to live with relatives for the summer. Bairéad will participate in a Q&A following the screening.

CAPITAL IRISH FILM FESTIVALSolas Nua, the D.C.-based organization dedicated to presenting contemporary Irish arts, readies its annual showcase of films from Ireland the first weekend of March. Co-presented by the AFI Silver Theatre, this year’s festival inaugurates the Norman Houston Short Film Award, named in memory of a former director of the Northern Ireland Bureau in the U.S.