12th Annual Irish American Movie Hooley Returns to Wilmette September 25–27

Three Days of Irish and Irish American Film Celebrate Storytelling, Filmmaking and Culture at the Wilmette Theatre

When a party gets rowdy, the Irish call it a “hooley”.

Our Movie Hooley is returning to the village of Wilmette this September with the 12th  Annual Irish American Movie Hooley film festival. Celebrating a 5th anniversary locally at the Wilmette Theatre Sept. 25-26-27 with four extraordinary films. The festival is sponsored by Hibernian Media’s Irish American Labor Alliance including:

• Local 130 Plumbers Union led by President/Bus. Mgr. Jim Coyne
• Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council led by Kevin McLaughlin and
• Iron Workers Local 1 led by President/Bus Mgr. John Gardiner

The Movie Hooley is also thankful for support from the Irish Film Institute. The 12th Annual Irish American Movie Hooley film festival will kick off Friday night, September 25th at 8PM with Frank Shouldice’s classic 2025 Irish documentary

It’s the only Irish American film festival in the world and this year we are so excited to present these three extraordinary films

Friday night, September 25th at 8PM with Frank Shouldice’s classic 2025 Irish documentary

ONCE WE WERE PUNKS, that follows four school friends from 1980s Bailieborough, County Cavan, who form a punk band called “The Panic Merchants”, drift apart for 25 years due to adulthood and emigration, and then reunite in middle age to pick up where they left off. Director Frank Shouldice will be joining us that night to meet the audience and discuss his film. Frank previously screened his classic film

THE MAN WHO WANTED TO FLY as the marquee opening feature at the 5th Annual Irish American Movie Hooley. We are thrilled to welcome him back to Chicago!

On Saturday night, September 26th , we will be screening

JOHN FORD DREAMING THE QUIET MAN, directed by Se Merry Doyle; his homage to legendary Irish film director John Ford and his unforgettable classic film THE QUIET MAN. Hibernian Media joins the 75th Anniversary celebration of this film as we mark the start of filming on location in Ireland in 1951.This film explores Ford’s 20-year personal quest to bring his passionate epic storyline to his ancestral homeland featuring insights from Martin Scorsese, leading lady Maureen O’Hara, Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan and Peter Bogdanovich. Representing director Se Merry Doyle and joining us for this screening will be Brian Downes, Executive Director of the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum in Winterset, Iowa and the personal recommendation of Doyle to rep the film.

Then on Sunday the Movie Hooley focuses on Irish American filmmaking, breaking with tradition to screen our first short film

BELIEF by Irish American actor/filmmaker Colin Flynn and then screening

GHOSTWRITER, written by Chicago Irish American James Lynch and directed by Tim Miller. The film features a brilliant local cast including the late, great Mary Ann Thebus in a heartbreaking performance. Flynn, Miller, and Lynch will all be with us in person for the screening and post-screening discussion.