Over the past few months, the Irish Film Institute, traditionally a home to indie and foreign-language releases, has opened its doors to a surprising number of commercial films. Inception, currently the third-highest grossing film of the year worldwide, played in the Temple Bar venue during the summer. Last month Tamara Drewe, another crowd-pleaser, turned up. Today we get to see Ryan Reynolds suffocating in the (excellent, to be fair) Buried.

Reel News asked IFI director Sarah Glennie if any change in programming policy was afoot.

“There is no change of policy,” she said. “Inception was a very important one for us. We felt the quality of the film and Christopher Nolan’s reputation justified our showing it. I wasn’t sure. But it was a very interesting one for us. It brought a lot of people into the IFI; a lot of people became members. That is a critical thing for us.

“These crossover films are important. They are a small element of the institute. But they do bring new people in.”

It is, however, reasonable to ask what criteria the IFI – a subsidised space, remember – uses in selecting its films. If it shows Inception, then why not the same director's The Dark Knight?

"It's difficult to put a ring fence around it," responds Glennie. "We do do this; we don't do that. In a certain context we might show The Dark Knight— as part of an education package, maybe. But our overall brief is not to go right into the mainstream."