Irish Film Theatre
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Earlsfort Terrace
Dublin
Ireland
 St. Stephen's Green House, site of the cinema | |
 Interactive map of Irish Film Theatre | |
| Former names | International Cinema |
|---|---|
| Address | St. Stephen's Green House Earlsfort Terrace Dublin Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°20′08″N 6°15′26″W / 53.335570°N 6.257086°W |
| Type | Former Dublin cinema |
| Current use | Arts/entertainment venue and bar |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1977 |
| Closed | May 1984 |
The Irish Film Theatre (IFT) was a cinema dedicated to showing art films in Dublin in Ireland from 1977 to 1984.
The Arts Council of Ireland established Irish Film Theatre Limited as a company to promote the art of cinema in Ireland.[1] The cinema took over the theatre used by the former International Cinema[2] at St. Stephen's Green House which, at the time, also housed the headquarters of the Irish Sugar Company in Earlsfort Terrace, beside St. Stephen's Green.[3]
The IFT played the important role of bringing to Ireland notable developments in the art of cinema of which the public were otherwise deprived by lack of interest from mainstream Irish cinemas, or which had been or would have been banned, or significantly damaged by cuts by the Irish film censor at the time.[3][4] The cinema screened mostly non-mainstream work usually unavailable elsewhere in Ireland including Irish film, independent film, and foreign language film from around the world.
Established classic films were exhibited alongside new releases, allowing audiences the chance to view work from Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin and North America at a time when cinema programming in Ireland was usually confined to mainstream English language material from the United States and Britain.[4] Films from Britain and the United States that were ignored by Irish commercial cinemas were also shown, such as Sebastiane by Derek Jarman, Nashville by Robert Altman, and Between the Lines by Joan Micklin Silver.
