Welcome to the official website for the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival.

The Los Angeles Irish film festival will take place from September 30th - October 2nd, 2011.

Currently the dates have been secured for opening night - September 30th at the Linwood Dunn Theatre - followed by further events at the Aero Theatre, Santa Monica from October 1st and 2nd, 2011.

The LAIFF is about celebrating the Irish passion for story telling and our deep-rooted love for the tellers of tales. A rich and ancient tradition that started around the hearth of every Irish household, our cultural passion for storytelling has found its way onto the world stage through the medium of film. Cutting edge cinematic technology and aesthetic vision may have taken the place of flickering hearth flames, but it's that same truth seeking curiosity that drives the modern Irish storyteller into exploring the universally fascinating depths of the human condition.

Coupled with the treasures of our movie-making past, LAIFF presents modern cinematic works as diverse as they are unique and in bringing them together in the arena of a film festival, we have created a type of cinematic barometer for the cultural climate of Ireland.

BACKGROUND TO IMAGINE IRELAND

In March 2009, in his speech in New York launching the Ireland-US Strategic Policy Review, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, requested that Culture Ireland mount a strategic initiative promoting Irish arts in the US in 2011. The Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh in September 2009 placed a new strategic priority on culture as a unique long-term strength and door-opener for Ireland and Irish business, and as the most effective means of strengthening links with the global Irish diaspora. Following on this, the Taoiseach announced at the White House during his visit to Washington DC in March 2010 that an Irish arts season would take place in the US in 2011.
Since its establishment in 2005, Culture Ireland has developed projects and relationships with a range of cultural institutions, venues and promoters in the US, which provide a strong basis on which to build the proposed programme. The Department of Foreign Affairs, with the Irish Embassy in Washington and Consulate-General in the US, are working closely with Culture Ireland and are key partners in the delivery of the project.