Baseball is a mainstay of American culture and cinema alike, yet its charms can elude many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, despite the best efforts of crowd-pleasers like Field of Dreams and A League of Their Own. 

Yet Carson Lund’s gorgeously wistful, edge-of-autumn baseball movie comes closer than just about any other to articulating the sport’s hold on the population. It does so by narrowing its focus to one small, shabby league of mostly middle-aged amateur players in a sleepy New England suburb, bantering and beercanning their way through the last game of the season — and possibly ever, as their pitch is slated for demolition.

Chronicling these final hours of play with a warm, wry sense of humour, Eephus is a funny-sad-sweet tribute to the unifying power of community activity, the vicarious pleasures of spectatorship and the graceful choreography of the Great American Pastime.

For information on the full BFF24 programme visit: www.belfastfilmfestival.org