The Waterford Film Festival
The third annual Waterford Film Festival will take place from Friday, November 6th, to Sunday, November 8th, in the Greyfrairs Art Gallery Waterford. Festival organisers have reported a scaling down of the festival as a result of reduced funding but still received hundreds of submissions from across the globe.
The festival programme will include the screening of eight feature films and documentaries and 30 short films from filmmakers from around the world. Dublin-born filmmaker Joseph Delond’s independent film will launch proceedings on Friday, November 6th. The film, entitled ‘Bitterness’, is Delond’s debut feature film and is a story of a man who is jilted at the altar thus which leads to a new bitterness in him which is intensified by the happy lives of his friends.
British feature fiction film ‘Billy & Lilly Go to New York’ will enjoy its world premičre at the festival. The film is made by director Bill Maloney (Lunatic). The dockumentary sees Bill playing himself (a cockney –speaking Irishman) who goes to New York to represent his nominated feature film at a NY Film Festival. He decides to bypass the festival glitz in favour of shooting a documentary about the homeless people of NY which leads to a tragic close.
Feature documentaries that will screen at the festival includes ‘Clown around Lesotho!’, a film made by Irish filmmaker Mike Casey (Des Bishop: Joy in the Hood) about a troupe of Irish clowns who travel to Lesotho, one the poorest countries in the world. Another documentary being screened comes from debut feature documentary filmmakers Cian O ‘Laoi and Oliver Knowles. The documentary is called ‘Pipe Down’ and it documents Shell Oil’s plans of laying down gas pipes off the Mayo Coast, an action which threatens to endanger the environment and the lives of local farmers and fishermen. Also screening is ‘Obama's Irish Roots’ directed by Gabriel Murray (The Lost World of the Crystal Skull). This Docudrama tells the story of President Obama's Irish roots which can be traced back as far as Brian Boru.
Closing this year festival is a low budget independent American/Irish production called ‘Manband’, which was shot on location in Los Angeles California by debut director Dermott Petty. ‘Manband’ is a comedy film about two music promoters hoping to find the next big thing in pop music who end up creating a boyband made up of middle aged men.
This year’s festival sees a new event - a short screenplay competition for which organisers received over one hundred submissions which have since been narrowed down to twenty finalists. The overall winner of the competition will be announced on the last day of the festival as will the winners in the categories of Best Feature Film, Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Film. 1st and 2nd place certificates will be awarded in each category and a cash prize of €600 will be awarded for 1st place in the short film and the short screenplay category.
Festival Director, Stephen Byrne, tells IFTN "All of us here at the Waterford Film Festival are excited about this year's programme. Filmmakers and Screenplay writers from across Ireland, U.K. and several European Countries are travelling to the festival. We are delighted by the response by filmmakers and the quality of work that has been submitted to us. We will be screening films that come from different backgrounds, from debut filmmakers to award winners. We found all these films to be entertaining in different ways and there is a subject to suit everyone's taste."
The Waterford Film Festival’s full list of events can be seen on www.waterfordfilmfestival.com
Clones Film Festival Review
The Clones Film Festival finished with victory for ‘The Fag’, a silent film conceived by Pamela Brown which featured a live musical score and made by artists in Creative Enterprise and A Whole Handlin’ Productions. ‘The Fag’ was awarded the Francie for Best Film and The Audience Award at Clones Film Festival on Sunday night.
The festival’s Scanbitz Short Film Challenge lead to the screening of five completed projects which were described by the judges (Peter Magic Johnston, 15 Second Film Festival, James Finlan, Film Maker and Lecturer in Huston Film School and Kevin Allen, Director and Flatlake Literary Festival impressario) as “brave and ambitious”. These included The Gulpins’ film ‘Clones: A History’ and ‘The Boy Who Flew’ which was directed by Alan Farrell and produced by Paddy Slattery and was partially shot from a remote control plane.
For the first time this year The Scanbitz Challenge committee included a student catergory. This was won by Mullingar Community College with ‘Heroes of Clones’ a humorous look at what happens when myths are challenged and legends are invoked. The festival’s organisers say they are again delighted with the quality of the films made as part of the Scanbitz challenge which will be available online shortly. www.clonesfilmfestival.com they continued by thanking their principal sponsors Eamonn McKenna, Scanbitz, Film Ireland, Filmbase and the International Film School for their support and sponsorship.
‘The Farm’ Screens at Abertoir Horror Film Fest
Micro-budget Irish horror film 'The Farm' will screen at the Abertoir Horror Film Festival in Wales. The feature film was shot in summer 2008 on a budget of €110. It was directed and produced by Daire McNab (Nirvana) and produced by Robert Kearns and Simone Cameron-Coen.
’The Farm’ stars Jack Lowe (The Valley of Knockanure), Louise Cargin (Nirvana), Cathal Reilly, Brian Robinson (The Draft) and Neill Fleming.
McNab, Kearns and Cameron-Coen are currently in pre-production on their second micro-budget feature 'The Gingerbread Men', which McNab tells IFTN is a "dark romantic-comedy musical."
The Abertoir Festival is a horror film festival renowned for its premiere last year of 'Colin', a British zombie film shot for Ł45, and which was released on DVD in Ireland this week. 'The Farm' will screen on Friday November 6th at 7.00pm.
For more information about the Abertoir Horror Film Festival visit www.abertoir.co.uk
