As Dustin will attest, after going on a Michael Fassbender Bender a few weeks ago, I started a list called "The Best Irish Films." Then I scrapped that list because I somehow felt obliged to watch all the Irish films before being qualified to talk about "The Best". But you can't watch all the Irish films, folks and when you try, as I did, you end up watching a lot of films on terrorism. And then everything gets a little bleak. And then you have to wash your soul in whiskey and start again. I didn't make it, friends. I didn't watch them all. So I'm renaming this list "My Favorite Irish Films" and, to add insult to injury, I'm going to use a fairly loose definition of "Irish" (Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Irishmen Abroad!)

Also, lucky for me, a lovely and comprehensive article about Irish biopics was already...

In America

DVD

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Starring Sarah Bolger, Emma Bolger, Paddy Considine, Djimon Hounsou, Samantha Morton

2003

A little girl by the name of Christy (Sarah Bolger) comes to America, Manhattan specifically, from Ireland and captures everything on her little red camcorder. She tapes anything she finds interesting, and that can be a lot. This camcorder sees everything from normal people walking the streets of Manhattan, a little girl beautifully singing Desperado, and even the end of days for two people she dearly loves. She lies on the top bunk, younger sister Ariel (Emma Bolger) on the bottom, and replays these happenings every night on her little video screen.

Some movies shake our emotions, others give us goosebumps, others even make us feel an overwhelming sense of joy but it’s a rarity that one single movie can possess all three of these golden qualities. In America (2003) is that rarity.

TORONTO -- Canadian director Lalita Krishna's Move Your World, a documentary about young people raising AIDS prevention awareness in Tanzania, earned the audience award at the 9th annual Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children on Sunday. Sprockets' festivalgoers also gave the audience award for best animated film to Thierry Schiel's Renart the Fox, from Luxembourg, as the curtain went down on the Toronto International Film Festival's annual showcase of kids-themed films. Feature films grabbing trophies as part of juried competition included British director Paul Marcus for Heidi, which starred Emma Bolger, Max von Sydow and Geraldine Chaplin, and U.S. director Doug Atchison earning an award for Akeelah and the Bee, a drama set around the U.S. National Spelling Bee that stars Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.