The Dark Hedges International Film Festival returns to Belfast with its biggest-ever lineup with a week of screenings both physically and digitally from the 24th to the 31st of October.
Now into its third year, the festival’s programme continues to showcase an eclectic mix of cult short films and new features screened alongside cult classics within the horror, fantasy and sci-fi genres made by filmmakers across the globe.
As always I’d like to thank everyone who made this year’s programme happen, including the festival’s team, venue organizers and our funders, notably Film Hub NI
I’m really excited about our 2022 line-up, It’s our biggest ever programme with an exciting array of new films included this year along with some fantastic shorts from around the world
Jim McClean (Lead Programmer)
Festival Trailer
Full Lineup
New Cinema
We have an exciting lineup of new films within this year’s programme, from Pat Higgins’s brilliantly titled horror-musical Powertool Cheerleaders Vs The Boyband of The Screeching Dead (Friday 28 October) to Adam Leader and Richard Oakes’ twisted cannibal horror Feed Me (Saturday 29 October) and Jamie Hooper’s atmospheric chiller, The Creeping (Saturday 29 October).
We’ll also be screening Oscar Harding’s documentary A Life on the Farm (Saturday 29 October), a truly bizarre documentary that tells a strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.
Our lineup also includes We’ll also be screening Eugene Mcpeake’s short anthology of six individual traditionally themed Irish ghost stories (Saturday 29 October).
All our new films will take place at the Belfast Film Festival’s Beanbag Cinema.
Cult Classics
We’ve also included several anniversary screenings within this year’s lineup including John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness at the Sunflower Public House (Monday 24 October) and The Monster Squad at Movie House Cinemas Cityside (Monday 31 October).
As part of our festival’s classic horror strand, we’ll be screening James Whales’ Bride of Frankenstein at the Strand Arts Centre (Sunday 30 October) and teamed up with The Readers in the Rue Morgue for a special charity screening of Night of the Living Dead on Halloween Night
BFI’s In Dreams are Monsters Season
As part of the BFI’s In Dreams Are Monsters season we’ll be hosting several special events including a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the Belfast Barge (Wednesday 26 October) as we turn the venue into The Demeter for one night only.
We’ll also be screening What We Do in the Shadows, hosted by local cosplayer HedgeScout at the Black Box (Saturday 30 October) where we’ll be asking people to release their inner vampires and come out for our Unholy Masquerade Ball.
We’ll also be screening Tom Holland’s Fright Night at the Queen’s Film Theatre (Friday 29 October).
Short Films
The festival still remains committed to its short film programme with screenings at the Strand Arts Centre in East Belfast for both finalists within the Irish and International categories of their Short Film Competition.
The festival’s digital player will also showcase 15 shorts from our Irish and International submissions that have been given Offical Selection status.
