‘I am thrilled': Cillian Murphy's new film to have its European premiere in Cork

Irish Times

5 days ago

Tim Mielants's film Steve, starring
Cillian Murphy
, is to have its European premiere at the Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival in
Cork
city on Saturday, September 13th. This marks a coup for the event as it moves into its 10th year. Mielents and Murphy previously collaborated on
Small Things Like These
, an adaptation of a
Claire Keegan
story that proved a significant domestic hit in 2024. The two men will join Max Porter, writer of Steve, for a public interview after the premiere. As was the case with Small Things, Murphy acts as co-producer on Steve alongside Irish veteran Alan Maloney.
Murphy is also to co-create the music and arts event as it takes on cinema for the first time. 'I am thrilled to be part of the inaugural film programme of SFSH 2025,' Murphy said. 'It is very meaningful for me to have the European premiere of Steve in my hometown of Cork city. Steve is a film that Max Porter wrote listening to 1990's Jungle and the film's score is deeply influenced by the rhythms and patterns of drum and bass.'
Adapted from Porter's 2023 novella Shy, Steve features Murphy as a teacher supervising boys with societal and behavioural difficulties. Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson (who won best supporting performance at the Berlin Film Festival for Small Things Like These) costar in a project that is to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival shortly before its European debut. The Netflix production, available on the streamer from October 3rd, will be on theatrical release in Ireland from September 19th.
Safe Harbour will also screen Clint Bentley's Train Dreams, a huge critical hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, as well as a varied array of music-related titles.
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'The music documentaries in the programme are studies on some of my favourite artists of all time,' Murphy raved. 'Jeff Buckley, Broken Social Scene, Dónal Lunny, Brian Eno and Conor Walsh: each one elegiac and sensitive and revelatory in different ways.'
Despite a hugely praised premiere at the Berlinale (and it starring the then-current holder of the Oscar for best actor), Small Things Like These did not get the awards attention it deserved last Spring. Netflix will be hoping the Toronto premiere launches Steve into the 2026 gong season with some momentum. Other Irish actors hoping to figure in the race include Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley – as William and Agnes Shakespeare – in Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's adored novel Hamnet and Colin Farrell in Edward Berger's take on Lawrence Osborne's gambling yarn The Ballad of a Small Player. For reasons too nerdy to summarise, awards analysts are convinced both those films will premiere at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival from the end of August. The now-enormous awards season kicks off properly with the overlapping Venice Film Festival on August 27th.