We're less than one week away from the start of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival, so if you're still wondering what films you should watch, we've only gone out and done you a friggin' service.

We've only gone and asked Grainne Humphreys for her nine recommendations for this year's festival, where you can check them out, who'll be at each screening, and which has a Q&A session after each. You can pick up tickets for each and every film at diff.ie and the festival begins in interest on February 21st.

 

1. Mary Magdalene

February 28th - Savoy - 6.30PM

Garth Davis' first film since the Oscar-nominated Lion, Mary Magdalene sees Rooney Mara as the titular character and Jaoquin Phoenix as Jesus Christ in this dramatic retelling of the days leading up to the crucifixion and Mary Magdalene's part in the story. With Davis, Phoenix and Mara set to attend the premiere, this is sure to be one of the red carpet highlights of the festival.

 

2. Good Favour

February 27th - Lighthouse - 8.30PM

Rebecca Daly's follow-up to Mammal and The Other Side Of Sleep tackles crises of faith in a remote Central European village where a newcomer arrives and brings with him unexplained powers and wonders. Atmospheric and eerie, director Rebecca Daly will be in attendance following the screening.

 

3. Beast

February 23rd - Cineworld - 6.15PM

Written and directed by newcomer Michael Pearce and starring Taboo's Jessie Buckley - both of whom will be in attendance after the screening - Beast follows a troubled woman living in an isolated community who finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider, played by Vanity Fair's Johnny Flynn, who is suspected of a series of brutal murders.

 

4. Ballad of Lefty Brown

February 24th - Cineworld - 8.00PM

This slow-burn Western sees Bill Pullman - who'll also be in Dublin for the festival - as a brow-beaten lawman who's falsely accused of the murder of his partner, and has to evade authorities while trying to prove his innocence.

 

5. Yasuni Man

February 22nd - Light House - 2.00PM

A powerful documentary, Yasuni Man is set in Ecuador's most well-known nature reserve that's under threat from major corporations who want to plunder the landscape for its valuable resources. With filmmaker Ryan Killackley in attendance, this should be a fascinating watch.

 

6. The Divine Order

February 24th - Cineworld - 4.30PM

This rousing biopic of Switzerland's 1968 movement, it focuses on Nora (Marie Leuneberger), a young housewife in a sleepy village who's seen little of the upheaval in her country and begins to campaign for women's suffrage.

 

7. Custody

February 28th - Light House - 6.30PM

Xavier Legrand's first directorial effort - who'll also be at the screening in Dublin - sees a young boy forced to spend time with his abusive father following a court decision from his parents' bitter and acrimonious divorce. Starring Inglorious Basterds' Denis Ménochet and French actress Léa Drucker, Custody plays like a drama / thriller with some tense moments.
 

8. Never Steady, Never Still

February 23rd - Light House - 6.15PM

A debut film by Canadian filmmaker Kathleen Hepburn, it tells the the story of a woman (Shirley Henderson) struggling through the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, and her teenage son (Théodore Pellerin), a reluctant oil field worker who is faced with the daunting task of having to fill the shoes of his father, the caregiver, at the tender age of eighteen.

 

9. Cloudboy

March 1st - Omniplex Rathmines - 10AM

Directed by Meikeminne Clinckspoor, the story follows a young city boy who arrives in remote Swedish Lapland, and connects with a young girl who takes him on a wild and magical journey through the forest where he eventually becomes a wild cloudboy. Imaginative and with stunning scenery, Cloudboy's a compelling tale of city life and country living.

 

10. Muse

February 28th - Light House - 8.45PM

Shot in Dublin by Spanish director Jaume Balagueró, this seductive thriller follows a college professor who's haunted both by the recent death of his girlfriend and a recurring nightmare that sees a woman murdered in a bizarre ritual - which then comes to life one night and sees him trying to understand how it came to be, and why he and another woman have had the same dream.