BVIFF 2026 - Boyne Valley International Film Festival Programme

The Boyne Valley International Film Festival’s fifth edition takes over Droichead Arts Centre for a full weekend in August, and its full-festival Season Ticket sold out well before the doors opened. Two of the weekend’s headline strands, the gala screening of This is England and the Filmmaker in Focus event with Aisling Connolly Byrne, are covered as their own listings on this site. This page covers the rest of what is a busy, multi-strand festival programme.

What to expect

BVIFF opens on Friday 7 August with Made in the Boyne Valley, a 7pm screening of seven short films made in the region, running to around 8:50pm with a 20-minute Q&A built into the schedule afterwards. The shorts cover a wide range of ground: a post-apocalyptic story of a woman and a robot, a tale of revolutionary resistance, an Iron Age kidnapping drama, folklore-inspired horror set in 1800s Ireland, and further films dealing with chronic illness, grief, workplace relationships and personal struggle. That opening screening has sold out.

Saturday and Sunday carry the bulk of the festival’s other strands: National Programmes 1 to 4, an International Programme of shorts from outside Ireland, a Documentary Programme, and a dedicated Animation Day run with the National Talent Academy, alongside separate Animation 1 and Animation 2 screening blocks and an Exclusive Preview of the film Little Caribou. A Saturday and Sunday Weekend Season Ticket covers most of these strands from 12 noon on the Saturday, though it specifically excludes the Friday night Made in the Boyne Valley screening, any workshops, the gala screening and the Animation Day, all of which are ticketed separately. The full three-day Season Ticket, which would have covered everything, sold out ahead of the festival opening.

Good to know

• Dates: Friday 7 to Sunday 9 August 2026, Droichead Arts Centre, Stockwell Street, Drogheda

• Made in the Boyne Valley screens Friday 7 August, 7pm to 8:50pm, and has sold out

• Weekend Season Ticket (Saturday and Sunday) starts 12 noon on Saturday 8 August; it excludes the Friday screening, workshops, gala screening and Animation Day

• The full-festival Season Ticket covering all three days has sold out

• Price: ticketed; check droichead.com for any released returns or remaining single-programme tickets

• This is England and Filmmaker in Focus, the festival’s two headline events, are listed separately on this site

• Now in its fifth year, BVIFF is curated by Frank W. Kelly and Collette Farrell

Getting there

Droichead Arts Centre is on Stockwell Street in central Drogheda, a short walk from the town’s bus and rail stations. Drogheda sits on the M1 motorway around 50km north of Dublin, with Bus Eireann and Irish Rail services running the Dublin-Belfast line in around 45 minutes from Dublin Connolly. Street parking and the Drogheda Municipal Centre car park are both close to the venue, and the shopping centre car park on West Street is a short walk away.

While you’re in Drogheda

BVIFF weekend coincides with a busy August in Drogheda. The town’s riverside walk along the Boyne and its medieval St Laurence Gate are both a short stroll from the arts centre. There is more to see in Drogheda and across Co. Louth.