ONCE UPON A TIME IN A CINEMA is set in a small-town cinema during one eventful Friday night screening from hell. Over the course of one evening, the film follows the travails of beleaguered cinema owner Earl Clancy (Colin Morgan) as he faces a myriad of disasters, any one of which could sink him. Drawing from writer/director David Gleeson’s own experience growing up in a family of cinema owners where his father’s 78-year career marked the longest in the cinema business in Ireland, if not the world, this film is a love letter to a peculiarly Irish cinema experience, which was as much about connecting with people as it was about the movie.