Saipan will premiere at Cork International Film Festival

Saipan starring Cork native Éanna Hardwicke and Steve Coogan will have its Irish premiere at the opening gala for the Cork International Film Festival.

The gala will take place on November 6 at Cork's Everyman Theatre.

The film details the falling out between football stars Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy during Ireland's 2002 World Cup.

The film was directed by Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Ordinary Love, Good Vibrations) and written by Paul Fraser (Heartlands, A Room for Romeo Brass). The film originally premiered at the Toronto International film festival earlier this month.

"Following on from his award-winning turn as Jimmy Saville, Steve Coogan doesn't so much play as inhabit the former Ireland gaffer with Éanna Hardwicke, a Cork boy himself, doing a similarly impressive job of portraying Keano as his rage over the team's World Cup 2002 preparations – or lack thereof – goes through the gears" said Stuart Clark in a Hot Press review of the film.

Saipan is set to release in Ireland on January 2, 2026.

The Cork International Film Festival will feature over 200 films and events, with the official festival programme to be released on October 15. Festival passes can be found here.

• See the teaser trailer for Saipan below: