ToryBoy The Movie

Director: John Walsh

Year: 2000

King Henry VIII reigned for 38 years. Young and handsome, his Court was the most colourful and extravagant in Europe. Yet this glamorous exterior partly disguised his unpredictable and savagely ruthless nature. His obsession to father a legitimate male heir led him through six marriages, to make himself Supreme Head of the English Church and to cut down those who stood in his way. 'Monarch' is part fact, part fiction, and unfolds around one night when the injured ruler arrives at a manor house closed for the season. Henry is without the power and control of his palace and is vulnerable from those around him, and from his own sanity. Henry left England financially and morally bankrupt; his collection of enemies his only constant. Even today there is a question mark surrounding his burial and possible exhumation. TP McKenna plays Henry; after starring alongside Richard Burton's Henry VIII in the epic 'Anne of a Thousand Days', 'Charge of the Light Brigade', 'Straw Dogs'; and with Jean Marsh ('Upstairs Downstairs', 'Willow' and 'Fatherland') playing an amalgamation of his ex-wives. 'Monarch' unfolds on one night in the year of Henry's death, 1547.

Director: Pamela Ryder

Year: 2026

A kind hearted, working class volunteer dons the Santa suit each year, quietly transforming his community through simple acts of generosity, testing whether his belief in giving can inspire others to carry the magic forward.

Director: Jake J Smith

Year: 2026

For the first time in 30 years, a film crew gains rare access to Pennsylvania’s maximum-security women’s prisons. Inside, The Lady Lifers – a band led by former soul singer Naomi Blount – turn grief into music and defiance. Though Naomi never took a life, she is serving life without parole. To have any hope of freedom, she must express guilt she does not feel – a cruel paradox of the justice system. As her music echoes beyond the prison walls and reaches the public, lawmakers and activists, the question remains: Will her voice be enough to finally set her free - and to free those she left behind? Official Selection Durban International Film Festival 2026