The episode features filmmaker John Kelly, whose animated short Retirement Plan - winner of both the Jury and Audience Awards at SXSW - continues its successful festival run with a screening at Dinard. Our contributor Tanvi Gawali speaks with John about the film’s journey and creative process.
We also hear from Myrid Carten, discussing her powerful documentary A Want in Her, which screened at the festival and is now showing in Irish cinemas.
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These both origionaly screened at the Dinard British and Irish Film Festival, which held its 36th edition last weekend in the picturesque seaside town of Dinard, Brittany.
The Dinard British and Irish Film Festival is an annual celebration of cinema that takes place in the coastal town of Dinard, Brittany. Now in its 36th year, the festival showcases the best of contemporary British and Irish filmmaking, highlighting emerging talent alongside established voices. Known for its warm hospitality and discerning audiences, Dinard provides a unique platform for filmmakers to connect with international industry figures and audiences in France.
In the throes of his overstimulated, energy poor midlife, Ray (Domhnall Gleeson) fantasises about everything he’d love to do in retirement, once he finally has the “time.” John Kelly’s touching and funny animated short is a meditative stream of possibilities on the beauty, curiosities and fears that we wish to embrace when confronted with an escalating awareness of our own finite mortality.
Retirement Plan has been a festival favorite since its world premiere at Galway Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award in the Animated Short Competition at SXSW, Best Animated Short at Bali International Film Festival and the Best of the Festival Award at Palm Springs International Shortfest. The film has qualified for the 2026 Oscars.
John Kelly is a filmmaker specialising in animation. Retirement Plan— co-written with Tara Lawall– was inspired by a panic attack. John studied at the Royal College of Art in London, and lives and works in Dublin, Ireland, where he is developing a number of projects that explore a similar line between tragedy and absurdity, including a feature-length animated documentary.
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