After the surprise success of Once, the micro-budget Irish film about two Dublin buskers that won the hearts of audiences at Sundance 2007 and won Best Song at the Academy Awards, Irish indie film is enjoying more attention than usual. Indeed the directeffect of John Carney’s sleeper hit can be seen in the choice of the opening film at this year’s Magners Irish Film Festival (formerly known as the Boston Irish Film Festival) which is Eden, a marital drama which is being proudly promoted as being “from the producers of Once.” Unusually, the festival announces its award winners before the festival rather than on closing night (as is traditional), so we already know, for example, that director Declan Recks’ Eden is the best film award winner and that The Basket Case, the debut effort from stand-up comedian Owen O’Neill, is the best short film. Despite the fact that the fest is showing its hand early, audiences at the Brattle Theatre and Harvard Film Archive will hopefully be adventurous in their sampling of the programme and take in movies like the multi award-winning Kings starring Colm Meany and the 70s-set rites of passage flick 32A, starring former fest honoree Aidan Quinn. This year’s winner of the Excellence Award is Irish-based English director (and FilmInFocus contributor) John Boorman, the legendary helmer who made Point Blank, Deliverance and Hope and Glory, and who is honored here both with a tribute night and a retrospective of his some of his best work.