Cinemagic, the film and television festival for young people returns to Dublin for the fourth year following its 20th anniversary celebratory Festival in Belfast and a four city USA Festival encompassing New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Dublin installment of the event will take place from 11 -18 May.
This year’s highlights include screenings of family films, the festival education programme and a series of masterclasses with industry experts including ‘Camelot’ creator, Michael Hirst and ‘Coronation Street’ actress, Suranne Jones.
The Festival team has just returned from a four city USA festival in New York, Boston, Lost Angeles and San Francisco. Festival director, Joan Burney Keatings tells us the focus is one and the same in all the festivals: “As it stands we have several festivals on the go so we have quite enough fingers in pies really,”she says. ”I think now the thing to do is make sure we stick to our original aim which was to bring out the creativity that every single child has.”
This year’s Dublin event launched with the news that Pierce Brosnan has joined as a patron of the Festival, adding his name to a list featuring Dermot O’Leary, Liam Neeson, Saorise Ronan, Patrick Bergin, Brian Cox, Julian Fellows and Terry George. Said patrons have helped the festival enormously, Joan tells us: “Having Liam Neeson as our patron has opened a lot of doors and having Pierce Brosnan now is a great boost,”she says. ”We sent three kids from Ballyfermot over to L.A. to meet Piece and they all watched the children’s short film together. And he sent me on a personal email afterwards to say how he had enjoyed it.”
A key element of the festival this year will once again be the Masterclasses being held. Hosts of these sessions will include ‘Coronation Street’ actors Suranne Jones and Anthony Cotton who will deliver a joint masterclass in acting; a Television presenting workshop with ‘Xposé’ presenter, Karen Koster; Presenting with MTV’s Laura Whitmore; Screenwriting with the creator of ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘The Tudors’, Michael Hirst and acting with IFTA nominated ‘Best: His Mother’s Son’ actress, Michelle Fairley. Joan describes her approach to sourcing the masterclass hosts, telling us: “I don’t always like to seek out the biggest names, it’s more so a case of finding someone with knowledge in the chosen area mixed with an approachability.”
The films screening at the Dublin festival in May will include family favourites such as ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘The Warriors’. The Festival will open with a Gala screening of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules’.
In partnership with We Love Anime, Cinemagic is also bringing anime fans a selection of the best films coming out in the next 12 months including ‘Summer Wars’, ‘Redline’, ‘Laputa Castle in the Sky’ and ‘The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya’. The festival’s education programme will travel to Dublin schools with sessions entitled ‘History Live: The Vikings’, ‘Storyboarding, Mapping the Weather with Nuala Carey’ and ‘Make a short animation in a Day’.
A full programme of events is available to view here: www.cinemagic.ie
