With this year’s edition of Irish Film Festival London just two weeks away, with screenings planned in venues across the city, the festival has announced a new patron in the form of upcoming Irish director David Freyne.

David is known for films like 2017’s The Cured starring Elliot Page, and 2020’s IFTA Award winning Dating Amber, which featured Sharon Horgan alongside leads Lola Petticrew and Fionn O’Shea.

IFFL’s Festival Director Gerry Maguire said of the new appointment, “David is someone whose work we have loved for years and who we know is destined for great things with his future projects. He represents the kind of contemporary filmmaking talent we want to champion at Irish Film London, so of course we’re thrilled that he’s agreed to represent the festival in this way!”

Freyne now sits alongside some of Ireland’s top screen talents as IFFL patrons, joining the likes of Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan, Moe Dunford and Fiona Shaw, as well as director Lenny Abrahamson and legendary casting director Ros Hubbard. IFFL kicks off on November 16th this year, with a Leicester Square opening gala, where they will preview the new film from Dublin based Frank Berry. His film Aisha stars Letitia Wright and Josh O’Connor in a hard-hitting drama about a Nigerian woman who has to navigate Ireland’s system of refugee accommodation known as direct provision.

Irish Film Festival London screenings will then take place at the neighbouring Vue Cinema in Piccadilly and the brand new art-deco Garden Cinema in Covent Garden, but will also return to Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios and Bloomsbury’s Bertha Dochouse, nestled in the Curzon Bloomsbury, for many events this year, while the festival’s mainstay awards ceremony will once again return to the Embassy of Ireland, in Belgravia.

Commenting on the festival, David Freyne said “I am deeply honoured to join the Irish Film Festival London family. It is such a vital event in helping incredible Irish films and talent to be discovered by a UK audience. Events like these, run by people who really care about what they do, are what give us reasons to keep going to the cinema.”