English director Asif Kapadia will be at the Galway Film Festival this evening to introduce his ambitious and visually striking first film, The Warrior, a spiritual allegory set in India.
Pan Nalin will introduce tomorrow night's screening of his first film, Samsara, a spiritual drama dealing with a young Buddhist monk, and tomorrow's highlights also include Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic's How Harry Became a Tree, starring Colm Meaney and Cillian Murphy. The film taps into the universal nature of a Chinese fable transposed to post-Civil War Ireland.
Special guests over the weekend will include the versatile Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn, and his cinematographer brother Declan Quinn, both of whom will give masterclasses on their crafts, as will Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian director of Monsoon Wedding.
Tom Tykwer, the bright young German director of Run Lola, Run, will be present with his new film, Heaven, a moral drama starring Cate Blanchett. English actress Lesley Manville will attend the fleadh screening of the new Mike Leigh drama, All Or Nothing, in which she stars with Timothy Spall.
The festival closes on Sunday night with 8 Femmes, the critically acclaimed new movie from the young French director François Ozon, who has assembled a stellar cast led by Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardent and Emmanuelle Béart.
A wide range of new short films, live action and animated, will be screened and eligible for the prize-giving ceremony on closing day.
The annual Fleadh Fair will enable Irish film-makers to meet film financiers, sales agents and distributors from around the world.
As ever, there will be a series of debates and workshops, along with a great deal of informal discussion until late into the night at the festival club, the Galway Rowing Club.