In short: The Silent Film Festival returns to Galway City on Saturday 21 November 2026 with six events from 11am to late: early cartoons for kids, the Irish premiere of the “lost” 1926 film Padlocked, Joe Strummer’s Hell W10 with a live Galway punk band, Nosferatu with an experimental live score, and an 18+ Roaring Twenties night. Tickets are €10 to €17, or €57 for an all-day pass.
A VAMPIRE, a film nobody had seen for a century and the frontman of The Clash are all heading for Galway’s West End next weekend, as the city’s Silent Film Festival returns for its second edition.
The one-day festival takes over the Silent Cinema on Dominick Street Lower and The Ol’55 Bar on Prospect Hill on Saturday 21 November, with every film accompanied by live music, from piano and bodhrán to a punk band and electric guitar.
Its organisers describe it as Ireland’s first festival dedicated to celebrating, preserving and reimagining silent cinema. The first edition ran over four days in September 2025, as Galway Bay FM reported at the time.
“Silent film is anything but silent,” the organisers say. “The combination of extraordinary images and live music creates an experience that is unique every time.”
Galway Silent Film Festival 2026: the full programme
- 11am – Silent Toons: the earliest animated cartoons, introduced by Galway animator Ashley Treacy (AshToons), with live music from Gustavo Lobão (percussion and bodhrán) and Eanna Ryder (piano). Family-friendly.
- 1pm – Modern Silents: new silent films from Uganda, the UK, Austria and Ireland, plus Samuel Beckett’s Film (1965) starring Buster Keaton, with live piano by Thomas Quill.
- 4pm – Padlocked (1926): Irish premiere of the restored Allan Dwan film, with live piano by Mia Fitzgerald.
- 6pm – Hell W10: Live & Loud at The Ol’55 Bar: Joe Strummer’s 1983 gangster film with a live soundtrack from a Galway punk band.
- 8pm – Nosferatu (1922): live experimental score by Antonis Kalamoutsos (bass and electronics) and Brendan Pooley (electric guitar).
- 10pm – The Roaring Twenties Show: vintage adult silent films, stand-up and piano. Strictly 18+.
Individual tickets cost between €10 and €17, and an all-day pass is €57. Tickets and the full programme are on the Silent Film Festival website.
A “lost” film returns after 100 years
The headline act is at 4pm, when the Silent Cinema shows the Irish premiere of Padlocked, a 1926 Paramount drama directed by Allan Dwan.
For almost a century the film was thought to be lost. The only surviving print turned up in the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague, and the film was restored in 2023 with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Galway will hear it with a new live piano accompaniment from local pianist and composer Mia Fitzgerald.
The festival says it is collaborating with the San Francisco Film Preserve, a non-profit that restores rare films and gets them back in front of audiences, on the screening. It will be introduced by Dublin actor, ballet dancer and film memorabilia collector John “Garbo” Dalton.
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Nosferatu with a live experimental score
The 8pm finale is F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, the 1922 German Expressionist classic in which Max Schreck’s Count Orlok became one of cinema’s most famous monsters. More than a century on, it still shapes how horror films look.
Instead of a traditional orchestra, Galway’s screening gets a live experimental soundscape from Antonis Kalamoutsos on bass and electronics and Brendan Pooley on electric guitar.
When silent cinema meets Galway punk
At 6pm the festival moves up to The Ol’55 Bar on Prospect Hill for Hell W10, the black-and-white gangster film shot on 16mm in 1983 by Joe Strummer, frontman of The Clash. It’s one of the rarer films in the Strummer story, and in Galway it will be played with a live soundtrack from a local punk band.
Cartoons for kids, Beckett for the grown-ups
The day starts gently at 11am with Silent Toons, a family-friendly look at the earliest animated cartoons and how animation began, introduced by Galway animator Ashley Treacy of the AshToons YouTube channel.
At 1pm, Modern Silents shows new silent films from around the world, including A Day Dreamer by Freddie Mulindua, Paris After Dark by Elizabeth Mienert, and two Irish films: Look at Me by Tilly O’Driscoll Smith and Closing Shift by Kuba Grol. The festival says Closing Shift was made by the staff of Galway’s Pálás art house cinema during its last shift before it closed for good.
The same session includes Samuel Beckett’s only film, Film (1965), starring Buster Keaton, with live piano from Thomas Quill, and two works by Austrian filmmaker Georg Wasner, Oceano Nox and the Irish premiere of Accelerando (2016). Galway writer Alan McMonagle will introduce the Wasner films, and Dr Lindsay Reid of the University of Galway will give a talk linked to Shakespeare Writing Julius Caesar, a film project made with Silent Cinema Galway.
The Roaring Twenties: strictly 18+
The night closes at 10pm with The Roaring Twenties Show, inspired by the night clubs of 1920s Berlin, Paris and New York. Expect vintage adult silent films, stand-up from Cork comedian Jack Leahy and performer Cosmic Pixie, and piano by Desiree Oduah. Over-18s only.
Galway Silent Film Festival 2026: where, when and how much
- When: Saturday 21 November 2026, 11am to late
- Where: Silent Cinema, 60 Dominick Street Lower, and The Ol’55 Bar, Prospect Hill (6pm event)
- Tickets: €10 to €17 per event, or €57 for an all-day pass
- Booking: silentfilmfestival.ie
- Age: the 11am Silent Toons is family-friendly; the 10pm Roaring Twenties Show is 18+
The festival is run by Adam Scheffler, Aleksandra Scheffler, Ashley Treacy and Jarek Machnicki. With Clifden and much of the west winding down for the winter, it’s one of the more unusual nights out in the county this month, and a rare chance to see a 100-year-old film on a big screen in Galway for the first time.
Sources: Silent Film Festival press release; San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Padlocked restoration; Galway Bay FM.
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