Three Irish productions/co-productions will screen in Official Competition at the 68th BFI London Film Festival.
Christopher Andrews' Bring Them Down; Darren Thornton's Four Mothers; and Rungano Nyoni's On Becoming a Guinea Fowl will all screen at the festival which begins on 9th October. Recent winners of the festival's Best Film Award include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist in 2023 and Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage in 2022.
Four Mothers is an Irish-set adaptation of Gianni di Gregorio’s 2008 film Pranzo Di Ferragosto. Fionnula Flanagan and James McArdle lead the cast with Dearbhla Molloy, Paddy Glynn and Stella McCusker also starring. IFTA winner Darren Thornton directs a script co-written with his brother, Colin Thornton. The pair came to prominence following their debut film A Date For Mad Mary, which claimed the Best Film award at the 2017 IFTA Film & Drama Awards. The comedy adaptation heralds from producer Eric Abraham (Ida) and Jack Sidey’s Portobello Films and Television (Moffie) with Irish producer Martina Niland (Sing Street) producing for Port Pictures.
Directed by Christopher Andrews and produced by Tailored Films, Bring Them Down sees “An Irish shepherding family thrust into battle on several fronts: internal strife, hostility within the family, and rivalry with another farmer.”. The film stars Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan and US actor Christopher Abbott - known for roles in Girls and Poor Things. The cast also includes Colm Meaney and Nora-Jane Noone.
Rungano Nyoni's On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, premiered at Cannes and will also play at TIFF. In the film, on an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
The 11 films in Official Competition are:
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “We have a stellar line up for audiences and our jury’s consideration. We’re immensely proud to have UK and Irish works alongside films from across the globe. Boasting an enormous breadth in terms of cinematic styles, there’s a world of cinema to be enjoyed in our 2024 Official Competition.”
The 68th BFI London Film Festival takes place from Wednesday 9 October to Sunday 20 October, 2024. The BFI LFF Programme Launch will take place on Wednesday 4 September, 2024. The winner of the Best Film Award will be announced on Sunday 20 October.
