Foyle Film Festival: A Night for Vinny: Vinny Cunningham — True Son Of Derry & North West Filmmakers Showcase
Foyle Film Festival present the newly commissioned documentary Vinny Cunningham — True Son Of Derry (2025) and a north west filmmakers showcase as part of a tribute to the late Vinny Cunningham.
Our tribute to Vinny...
On 8 February this year, Derry's filmmaking community lost a close friend, colleague, and creative collaborator.
A mainstay of Derry's film community for over 40 years, Vinny Cunningham worked as a multi-award-winning camera operator, documentary producer, and director. His work with Joe Mahon’s Westway Films on Lesser Spotted Ulster and Mahon's Way earned him a Guild of Television Cameramen award, but it's for his documentary work that Vinny's contribution is most significant.
It was his persistence that saw him persuade the newly established BBC4 to commission a documentary on the Battle of the Bogside that had been turned down repeatedly by local broadcasters in 2024. The film went on to win an IFTA Award for Best Documentary, receive a Grierson Award nomination, and screen internationally at film festivals as well as on the BBC.
The Derry Trilogy — Battle, No Go: The Free Derry Story, and Exodus — brought the city's story to life with love, compassion, and keen storytelling. His final work, The White Handkerchief (2022), received RTS and Celtic Film & TV Award nominations.
Vinny’s encyclopaedic archive of local footage was interwoven with testimonies from participants, eyewitnesses, and key figures, all scored with carefully curated local music. The result was a series of films that were a labour of love and a tribute to the city and its people.
Derry lost a proud son and champion this year and we celebrate his rich life and legacy at Foyle with a night dedicated to his passion for film, for music, and for the people of his city. So please come along and join us as we watch his work, and the work that he inspired, before we sing and raise a glass to a close friend, taken far too soon.
Each event is ticketed, with all proceeds from the night going to Foyle Hospice in Vinny’s memory.
Vinny Cunningham — True Son Of Derry
As part of this year’s Filmmakers showcase Foyle Film Festival has commissioned a documentary about Vinny and his work with contributions from his friends, family and colleagues. Alongside his own projects, Vinny was always willing to support others, offering archive material, contacts, and advice to filmmakers of all levels — both local and those creating films about the Northwest.
