THERE are some absolutely brilliant films to see at the Dukes in April, covering the whole spectrum from Scorsese's acclaimed 'Gangs of New York' to 'Abouna' - described as an African Western.

Also scheduled in April, film manager Tim Young hosts an event that looks at the Cannes Film Festival, the most important annual film celebration after the Academy Awards.

It will be on Saturday, April 12, when the Dukes will show the three big prize winners of last year's festival and use a wide array of big-screen DVD and VHS clips from Festival hits and misses to keep watchers entertained.

Films to kick off the April calendar are -

Love Liza (15) Sat, April 5th to Tuesday 8: Bleakly-comic tale of a young man unable to come to terms with his wife's suicide, with a superb central performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Magdalene Sisters (15) Sat, April 5 to Monday 7: Peter Mullan's Cannes Festival prize winner tells the true story of the Magdalene Asylums which were prison-like detention centres run by the Irish Catholic church to punish young women who were perceived to be sinners.

Damnation (15) Tuesday, April 8: Dir4ector Bela Tarr tracks the aimless but peculiarly poetic low-life of a rainswept Hungarian coal town during the no-man's-land time prior to the end of communism. Rleased in this country two years ago.