28-07-2025
Cillian Murphy's new film Steve to have European premiere in Cork
It has been announced that Cillian Murphy's new film Steve will have its European premiere in the actor's native Cork this September as part of the programme for this year's Sounds from a Safe Harbour arts festival in the city.
The festival runs from 11 to 14 September, and the European premiere of Steve will take place at the Arc Cinema Cork on Saturday 13 September.
Murphy will also take part in a public interview with Steve 's director Tim Mielants and screenwriter and author Max Porter in the Cork Opera House.
For more, see:
Steve reunites Murphy with Small Things Like These director Mielants and co-star Emily Watson for a school-based drama.
The film will receive its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier in September, where it will compete as part of the festival's Platform programme.
It will be released in selected Irish cinemas in September and will arrive on Netflix on 3 October.
Steve is described as "a reimagining" of Porter's best-selling novel Shy. The British author is also the film's executive producer.
"The film follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve (Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy) and his students at a last-chance reform school amidst a world that has forsaken them," says the Netflix synopsis.
"As Steve fights to protect the school's integrity and impending closure, we witness him grappling with his own mental health.
"In parallel to Steve's struggles, we meet Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence."
Joining Murphy, Watson, and newcomer Lycurgo in Steve are Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show, Mrs America) and Simbi Ajikawo (Top Boy) aka rapper Little Simz.
Having launched their company Big Things Films with the acclaimed adaptation of Claire Keegan's bestseller Small Things Like These, Murphy and his production partner Alan Moloney are releasing Steve as their second feature.
Murphy and author Porter previously collaborated on the stage adaptation of Porter's Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and the short film All of This Unreal Time.
"I just adore Max's writing and the thing his writing does for me, which Claire Keegan's writing does as well - and it's something I've always chased down in writing - is something that has an actual visceral effect on you, an emotional effect," the Cork actor told entertainment trade publication Deadline when Steve was first announced in February 2024.
"I remember reading Foster, Claire's short story, I remember actually crying reading the book and having to put my hood up on the train to try to hide, I was so embarrassed.
"And then Shy was also that book. Max gave me that book in a proof edition before he finished it, and again it just broke my heart. They're the sorts of things I love as a reader and as a performer, so I really wanted to do something with him."
