The Irish Film Institute also known as the IFI, is both an arthouse cinema and a national body that supports Irish Film heritage. The IFI presents film festivals, retrospectives and curated seasons, along with independent, Irish and foreign language films overlooked by commercial multiplexes at its cinemas in the Temple Bar quarter of Dublin. It maintains an archive of Irish films and provides education in film culture.
The IFI increases the range of films available to Irish audiences. New releases, national seasons, directors' retrospectives, thematic programmes, festivals, and special events have been regular features of the programme. Every year, the IFI rewards its audiences by hosting an Open Day, with free cinema screenings and tours. In 2011, the IFI was awarded Dublin's Best Cinema in Dublin Living Awards. In the last two decades the IFI has seen over 3.1 million cinema attendances to see 63,000 screenings of over 5900 different films. The IFI Café Bar has been serving over 1.78 million cups of tea and coffee to audiences that include over 8,000 members. The IFI Irish Film Archive contains 611 different collections with over 26,000 cans of films, the oldest of which, a Lumiere brothers film of Dublin and Belfast, dates back to 1897. In 2012, the IFI celebrated its 20th birthday in its landmark location in Temple Bar with special screenings, talks, blogs, a series of commissioned illustrations by members of Temple Bar Graphic Studios, a QR code trail and pop-up museum and exhibition.
The IFI is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status.