Accelerator

Directed with energy to burn, Vinny Murphy's first feature deals with a frenetic car chase from Belfast to Dublin involving five male drivers and their female companions travelling in five stolen cars, and it's triggered by the longtime rivalry between two drivers from opposite sides of the Border. Murphy succinctly establishes the mostly nihilistic young protagonists before cutting to the chase and pumping up the throttle - and the pulsating techno score by Adrian Utley and David Holmes.

Saturday, April 8th, UGC 5, 6 p.m.

Beau Travail

The African landscapes are handsomely photographed in the new Claire Denis film which employs minimal dialogue in its picture of suppressed homosexual yearnings in a French Foreign Legion unit. The film establishes a languorous mood as the soldiers go about their daily rituals of strenuous exercise, breaking rocks in the hot sun, playing war games, and meticulously ironing their uniforms. Denis Lavant and Gregoire Colin play the protagonists.

Sunday, April 16th, UGC 6, 5.15 p.m.

Bleeder

The young Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn, reunites with Kim Bodnia - the leading actor of his gritty first feature, Pusher - who's cast here as an edgy, self-loathing man who does not want his pregnant lover (Rikke Louise Andersson to bring their child into this world. Light relief is provided by Mads Mikkelsen - as a video store clerk who's obsessed with movies - in this simmering drama, which erupts in horrific acts of violent revenge.

Saturday, April 8th, UGC 6, 4.30 p.m.

Boys Don't Cry

Kimberly Pierce's bold, firmly unsentimental and factually based drama features Hilary Swank in her extraordinary, Oscar-winning performance as a young working-class woman who longs to afford a sex change. Disguising herself as a boy, she recklessly courts danger when she falls in with a heavy-drinking group in a redneck town and falls in love with one of them, a factory worker vividly portrayed by Chloe Sevigny. This complex, fascinating and chilling film of fear, prejudice and acceptance builds to a truly shocking climax.

Friday, April 7th, UGC 5, 8.45 p.m.

Exiled

Bill Muir's involving, thoughtfully worked out drama on the themes of taking sides, loyalty and betrayal is set in the New York borough of Queens in 1991, when a young Dubliner (Paul Ronan), on the run after a Raheny pub robbery, moves in with his cousin (Ronan Carr), who's from Northern Ireland, and asks him to help move a shipment of guns bound for the IRA. The screenplay is peppered with lively, witty banter and popular culture references.

Thursday, April 13th, UGC 6, 9.10 p.m.; Friday, April 14th, UGC 6, 4.30 p.m.

Jesus' Son

New Zealand director Alison Maclean's intense, edgy and mostly diverting serious comedy is set among drifters and junkies in early 1970s small-town America. Billy Crudup appealingly plays an essentially innocent young man with a propensity for doing the wrong thing and being in the wrong place as he ambles stoned and bemused through life. Samantha Morton is impressive as the fiery young heroin addict he meets. With Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Will Patton and Greg Germann.

Wednesday, April 12th, UGC 5, 6.45 p.m.

Mumford

The festival closes with Lawrence Kasdan's well-judged picture of people re-inventing themselves in an archetypal small American town visited by an urbane psychiatrist (Loren Dean). Among them are a middle-aged suburban woman (Mary McDonnell) who's neglected by her investment banker husband (Ted Danson) and becomes addicted to mail-order shopping; a lonely, skateboarding young billionaire (Jason Lee); and a pallid young divorced woman (Hope Davis) who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. The result is pleasingly unpredictable and uniformly well-acted.

Sunday, April 16th, UGC 5, 8.20 p.m.

The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola has wisely forsaken acting for directing and this, her first feature, is a confident picture dealing with five teenage sisters who commit suicide in 1971. Dark-humoured yet sensitive, it moves back and forward in time to examine the circumstances which lead to their decision. An unrecognisable Kathleen Turner plays their rigidly conservative mother, with James Woods as their distracted father and the excellent Kirsten Dunst as the pivotal character among the sisters. The ethereal original score is by Air.

Saturday, April 15th, UGC 5, 9 p.m.