A mother wrote to officials responsible for film classifications in Ireland this year to say she “couldn’t believe” a film that “horrified” her autistic son was rated only PG.
The woman said they had to abruptly leave a Mullingar cinema screening of Savages, a Swiss stop-motion animation film about a family that rescue an orang-utan in Borneo, as one scene was “clearly too upsetting for my son, let alone a young child”.
The submission was part of correspondence to the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) this year showing a variety of complaints and feedback about movie age ratings.
The woman wrote in August that her son was “horrified when the mother monkey got shot and the baby watched it all. We had to leave abruptly as a result. I cannot believe this film was rated as only PG? I was going to bring my six-year-old daughter but thankfully she didn’t want to go.
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“It has taken us years to get my son used to the cinema environment with all his struggles so we must ensure his next experience is a positive one.”
An IFCO official responded saying they were sorry “you and your son had a difficult experience” at the screening. “Savages was classified PG by our classification team with the accompanying consumer advice published to the IFCO website: ‘Mild animated violence. Some scenes may frighten younger viewers.’
“A film classified as PG will generally be suitable for children of eight and up but it goes without saying that each child is different and how they might respond to particular themes, scenes and imagery can vary hugely from child to child.”
IFCO received 14 pieces of written feedback from the public until November this year about films as varied as family comedy Bad Guys 2 and Chhaava, a Hindi-language historical epic.
Another woman wrote to express concern that some movies rated by Disney as six plus are rated G by IFCO, with the result that they are “making their way into childcare facilities and deemed safe for children age 5”.
She wrote her daughter was “subjected to Tangled” at a creche and “could not sleep as she kept seeing the witch and violence and was very upset”.
IFCO responded that the Rapunzel-based animated musical comedy was rated “General” in 2011 with the accompanying consumer advice that there were some “scary scenes”.
“We felt they were mitigated by the fantasy nature of the story and were often broken up by moments of humour.”
“IFCO is responsible for rating theatrical content and home entertainment content that is sold in shops in Ireland. Streaming services such as Disney plus are not under IFCO’s remit.”
In March, a former school principal complained about the 16 rating for 2024 Palme d’Or winner Anora given that young people “are expected to mature too early”.
Mikey Madison stars in the film as a stripper who marries the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch.
The correspondent said they were “alarmed at the misogyny towards girls and women. This movie gives a false impression of prostitution.”
An IFCO official answered: “My own feeling was sex workers – and the titular character in particular – are not glamorised in the film, rather they are humanised. The film critic Roger Ebert once said that cinema is a machine for creating empathy. I’d hope that films that give representation to characters who exist at the edges of our societies, that seek to make them real rather than abstract ideas, can help combat the issues of misogyny and trafficking that you so rightly highlight.”
In February, one viewer wrote that their mind had been “polluted” by watching The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody.
The film, which a second correspondent with IFCO flagged is rated R in the US – meaning under-17s need to be accompanied by an adult to see it – won three Academy Awards.
“It had a 16 rating [in Ireland] which I feel is appalling,” the complainant wrote. “I am 52 years old and the extreme pornography I saw last night at that film was most certainly not suitable for me without my consent and an 18 rating on it.”
IFCO responded that while there are “certainly intense and challenging moments” in the film, “such content is acceptable at 16 provided it is not gratuitous or, in the case of drug use, glamorised. It was also felt that [these] scenes were justified by context (in this case an exploration of the immigrant experience in the US post WW2).”
In January, a self-described “Catholic mom” wrote she was shocked by the sexual content in We Live in Time, a 15A-rated romance starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. She said it was “embarrassing to take my 14-year-old son” to a film that “should not be screened at all”.
In August, a couple said they were “utterly dismayed and upset” by the “entirely unnecessary cigarette smoking” in Materialists, a romcom starring Dakota Johnson. “We are noticing more and more scenes glamorising cigarette smoking creeping into movies.”
IFCO replied that “our guidelines treat this in much the same way we treat scenes relating to the consumption of alcohol”.
“Where such scenes occur involving minors, in particular where glamorised, they will be a strong determining factor in the age rating awarded and will feature in the consumer advice. Where there’s incidental cigarette smoking by adults ... it will not usually determine the rating.”
