The combined population of Ireland and Northern Ireland is less than that of the Bay Area, so it’s remarkable howIrish talenthas made such asizable contributionto movie history.

Irish-born actors who have films either in theaters now or due out soon include Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Liam Neeson (“Retribution”),Kenneth Branaghand Jamie Dornan (both in“A Haunting in Venice”), andSaoirse RonanandPaul Mescal(“Foe”). The list of Irish stars over the years goes far beyond that, from Richard Harris andPierce Brosnanto Jessie Buckley andColin Farrell.

And what would music be withoutSinéad O’Connor,U2andthe Cranberries?

So it’s no wonder that the San Francisco Irish Film Festival, one of the smallest on a crowded Bay Area film calendar, has proved to be so resilient.

“Storytelling is part of our culture,” said Kate Gunning, executive director for San Francisco Irish Film. “It dates back to before the (mid-1800s) famine times when people met in pubs and shared folklore and stories. I think filmmaking is the next generation of storytellers.”

The 20th anniversary event opens Thursday, Sept. 21, at the Delancey Street Screening Room with“The Miracle Club,”a delightful film set in the 1960s starring Laura Linney, Kathy Bates and Maggie Smith that slipped in and out of theaters in July, followed by a reception sponsored by the Consulate General of Ireland, San Francisco.

It closes with a celebration of the life of O’Connor,who died in July, featuring a free screening of the 2022 documentary “Nothing Compares,” with Emmy-nominated producer Michael Mallie scheduled to attend.

The festival’s special guest is James Martin, the first actor with Down syndrome to be the lead in an Oscar-winning film. “An Irish Goodbye,” about a pair of estranged brothers who reunite following their mother’s untimely death, took home theAcademy Awardforbest live action short filmthis year and will screen as part of a shorts festival on Friday, Sept. 22.

And there is a documentary, “The Ghost of Richard Harris,” celebrating the late, great actor withRussell Crowe,Vanessa Redgrave, Stephen Rea and Harris’ actor son, Jared Harris, paying tribute.

Micheál Smith, consul general of Ireland for the western United States, who is based in San Francisco, called the 20th anniversary of the festival “a huge milestone.”

“For the Irish community here, and beyond the Irish community in San Francisco, it is one of the pillars of our cultural calendar through the year,” Smith told the Chronicle at Delancey Street. “This is one of the most Irish American cities in the U.S.; we have in the Bay Area some 750,000 people of Irish descent. That vibrant community is in evidence with events like the film festival.”

The festival was founded by Niall McKay in 2003. Gunning got involved with the marketing team in 2010, and she became co-director with Una Fannon in 2013. When Fannon moved back to Ireland, Gunning assumed full directorship in 2016.

Under her watch, she has added a documentary festival in March and expanded partnerships with other film festivals, such asSFFilm,Mill Valley,FramelineandMostly British.

“我们是一个非常小的团队,我们都是volunteers who have day jobs,” said Gunning, who is the founding manager ofFocus Academy, a company that works with international startups in the health care industry. “Funding is the critical point for any festival, which depends a lot on sponsors and support. I think we’re getting good traction.”

Growing up in Dublin, Gunning first fell in love with movies when her mother took her to musicals such as “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music,” then became “the typical teenage girl going on a Saturday afternoon with her friends to the movies.” She moved to the Bay Area around 1990.

Teenagers today would most likely be attracted to the traditional Friday night shorts program, the festival’s most popular event. It draws a large number of submissions, and the audience skews younger than other programs.

As a younger man, Alan Hamill attended the shorts program and documentaries. He’s now the festival’s marketing director, and last year he brought family members visiting from near his hometown of Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, to the festival.

“The short films, I’ve always been into that,” Hamill said. “There is some amazing talent up and coming in (Irish) short films, so I take a keen interest in it.”

今年有10个短裤。其中之一,NualaDalton’s “Legend of the Mountain,” has members of the Killoughternane Drama Group of Ireland’s County Carlow recounting local folk tales that go back centuries.

“A folk tale is a medicine of hope in the darkest of times,” the movie says.

Those spiritual descendants of the ancient storytellers of Ireland and Northern Ireland are still thriving.

Reach G. Allen Johnson:ajohnson@sfchronicle.com