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Irish Film Festa 2016 Short Films Competition

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Fifteen short films have been selected for the Irish Film Festa 2016 competition. Ten shorts will compete in the live action category and five shorts will compete in the animation one.

This year we received about eighty submissions (animation, live action, fiction, documentary) and we would like to thank all the Irish filmmakers for their participation.

The 9th edition of Irish Film Festa will take place from April 7th to 10th at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.

 

Here’s the list of the selected short films:

 

LIVE ACTION

1. BOOGALOO & GRAHAM (2014) by Michael Lennox

Jamesy and Malachy are over the moon when their soft-hearted dad presents them with two baby chicks to care for. Raising their tiny charges, declaring themselves vegetarian and dreaming of running a chicken farm, the two boys are in for a shock when their parents announce that big changes are coming to the family.

2. GIRONA (2015) by Paul McGuigan

On a long stormy night an encounter with a dark mysterious woman in a strange hotel causes a lonely man to confront his past.

3. HOW WAS YOUR DAY (2015) by Damien O’Donnell

A woman is excited about the approaching birth of her first child.

4. LOVE IS A STING (2015) by Vincent Gallagher

Struggling children’s book writer Harold Finch gains an unexpected house guest- a 20 year

old, hyper-intelligent mosquito named Anabel.

5. LYING DOWN (2015) by Susan Collins and Brian O’Brien

Will needs to move on with his life; unfortunately, Will can’t move in any direction at all. Alannah can’t see what his problem is. Can she help him if she doesn’t understand him? Or will Will stay stuck in the same place, forever?

6. INSULIN (2015) by Andy Tohill and Ryan Tohill

Holed up in a run down pharmacy, a man helps his diabetic wife to survive on dwindling supplies of insulin, trading medicine for food from the outside world. When a stranger comes looking for insulin, and refuses to be turned away, both husband and wife must face the reality of her rapidly shortening life.

7. JOSEPH’S REEL (2015) by Michael Lavers

An elderly man, upon dying, is given the opportunity to relive one day of his life.

8. MY BONNIE (2015) by Hannah Quinn

Two people at sea, trapped between a rock and a hard place, must face the distance between them.

9. WAIT (2015) by Audrey O’ Reilly

When an important pigeon race and a rare visit home by his son Martin coincide, Charlie waits anxiously for a safe journey home.

10. WATERLILIES (2014) by Tanya Doyle

In their sixties seven women have decided to take themselves out of their comfort zone and learn to swim.

 

ANIMATION

1. CITY OF ROSES (2015) by Andrew Kavanagh

In 1950, Paddy Fitzpatrick emigrated to the USA from Ireland. Told through his letters home, the story details his new life, finding a job at Meier & Frank, meeting his future wife, Rose and being drafted for army.

2. AN ODE TO LOVE (2014) by Matthew Darragh

A lonely man on a desert island explores the highs and lows of romantic love when a mysterious companion is washed ashore. Nothing will ever be the same. Or will it?

3. THE TEACUP (2015) by Elif Boyacioglu

Once there was a man who was afraid to go out…

4. UNHINGED (2015) by Tom Caulfield

The squeaky hinge gets the oil. But when the squeak escapes the oil its sure to get you!

5. VIOLET (2015) by Maurice Joyce

Violet is a a young girl who despises her reflection. On the night of the school ball, tired of the abuse, Violet’s reflection decides she’s not going to take it anymore.

Irish Film Festa 2016 celebrates the Centenary of the Easter Rising

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Seachtar na Cásca
Seachtar na Cásca

The 9th edition of IRISH FILM FESTA will take place from 7 to 10 April, 2016, at the Casa del Cinema in Rome: dedicated to screening the best of contemporary Irish cinema, the festival will showcase Irish feature films, documentaries and short films, and provide conferences and public interviews with special guests from the Irish film sector.

Fifteen short films have been selected for the competition, ten in the live action category and five in the animation one.

IRISH FILM FESTA 2016 will also feature a special programme dedicated  to the Centenary of the Easter Rising, which in 1916 started the process that led to the Irish independence from the United Kingdom and the constitution of the Republic of Ireland.

This Ireland 1916-2016 programme includes a selection of episodes from 1916 Seachtar na Cásca (The Easter Seven), a seven part historical documentary series narrated by Brendan Gleeson and dedicated to the lives of the seven men who were the signatories of the 1916 Easter Proclamation: Thomas J. Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, James Connolly, Patrick H. Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh, and Joseph Plunkett. The series is produced by Abú Media Films for TG4 in association with the BAI and is directed by Dathaí Keane; the script was written by Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh.

IRISH FILM FESTA will also screen the nine short films produced by the Irish Film Board under the After ’16 one-off scheme as part of the Centenary commemorations. The After ’16 shorts are: A Father’s Letter by Joe Dolan, A Terrible Hollabaloo by Ben O’Connor, Baring Arms by Colm Quinn, Goodbye, Darling by Elena Doyle, Granite and Chalk by Patrick Hodgins, Mr. Yeats and the Beastly Coins by Laura McNicholas and Ann Marie Hourihane, My Life for Ireland by Kieron J. Walsh, The Cherishing by Dave Tynan, e The Party by Andrea Harkin.

This year’s Irish classic is Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins, which will be screened in Rome 20 years after it won the Golden Lion Award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival where its star Liam Neeson was voted best actor. The film, wich took Jordan more than a decade of work to write the script, tells the last six years of Michael Collins’ life, from the Rising of 1916 to the ambush that killed him in 1922.

The full programme of IRISH FILM FESTA 2016 will be announced in the next weeks.

1916 Seachtar na Cásca to screen at Irish Film Festa 2016

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1916 Seachtar na Cásca (The Easter Seven) is a seven part historical documentary series narrated by Brendan Gleeson and dedicated to the lives of the seven men who were the signatories of the 1916 Easter Proclamation: Thomas J. Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, James Connolly, P H Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas MacDonagh, and Joseph Plunkett.

The 9th edition of Irish Film Festa (7 – 10 April, 2016) will screen a selection of episodes from Seachtar na Cásca, as a part of the special programme dedicated  to the Centenary of the Easter Rising, which in 1916 started the process that led to the Irish independence from the United Kingdom and the constitution of the Republic of Ireland.

The series is produced by Abú Media Films for TG4 in association with the BAI and is directed by Dathaí Keane; the script was written by Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh.

Irish Film Festa 2016, short films submissions now closed

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Short films submissions for the competitive section of the 9th Irish Film Festa are now closed. The festival will take place from April 7h to 10th, 2016, at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.

This year we received about eighty submissions (animation, live action, fiction, documentary) and we would like to thank all the Irish filmmakers for their participation.

We are now working on the final selection and the titles of the shorts chosen for the competition will be announced by the end of January.

Follow us also on Twitter @IrishFilmFesta and on our Facebook page: you’ll find daily news about Irish cinema as well as all the updates about the festival.

Writing the Rising in Rome, a conference on the 1916 Easter Rising

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Writing the Rising is the international and interdisciplinary conference which will take place on January 14th and 15th at the Sala Conferenze “Ignazio Ambrogio”, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Straniere of the Università degli Studi Roma Tre.

The event is dedicated to the Centenary of the Easter Rising, which in 1916 started the process that led to the Irish independence from the United Kingdom and the constitution of the Republic of Ireland.

Bobby McDonagh, Irish Ambassador to Italy, will give the opening speech. Among the line-up of speakers, Roy Foster (Oxford University), Irish historian and author of the official biography of William Butler Yeats; Ben Levitas (Goldsmiths, University of London), author of The Theatre of Nation: Irish Drama and Cultural Nationalism, 1890-1916; and Roisin Higgins (Teeside University), author of Transforming 1916: Meaning, Memory and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Easter Rising.

On January 15th, at 16.15, Writing the Rising will also held a preview of the next IRISH FILM FESTA‘s special 1916 event, and the screening of the first episode of RTÉ’s new drama series Rebellion, which tells the story of 1916 from the point of view of the ordinary people of Dublin. Colin Teevan (Birkbeck, University of London), Irish academic and screenwriter of Rebellion, will attend the screening.

Writing the Rising is organised by CRISIS – Centro Ricerca Studi Irlandesi e Scozzesi Università Roma Tre, directed by John McCourt, in association with the Irish Embassy to Italy and the College of Saint Isidore.

Writing the Rising
January 14 – 15, 2016
Sala Conferenze “Ignazio Ambrogio” via del Valco di S. Paolo, 19 – Roma
Free entrance

The full programme of Writing the Rising can be consulted HERE.

Irish Film Festa in “Ireland and Cinema” edited by Barry Monahan

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Ireland and Cinema – Culture and Contexts is a new book edited by Barry Monahan (University College Cork), which explores «contemporary and historical Irish filmmaking and representations of nationality, national identity, and theoretical questions around the construction of Ireland and Irishness on the screen».

The volume includes a whole chapter dedicated to Irish Film Festa, featuring an interview with the director of the festival Susanna Pellis.

Irish Film Festa — Barry Monahan and Ciara Chambers say — «was not only designed with a wholly inclusive approach to every aspect of Irish indigenous production – combining screening of features and shorts, involving guest artists, author, actors, producers and directors, and incorporating workshops, masterclasses and public interviews – but it has also been an instrumental cultural event in providing connections between participants and other home-based festivals and their organizers».

ireland_and_cinemaTable of Contents:

Notes on Contributors
Foreword; Martin McLoone
Introduction; Barry Monahan

PART I: POLITICS OF HOME, SPACE AND PLACE
1. ‘Nothin’ But a Wee Humble Cottage’: At Home in Irish Cinema; Conn Holohan
2. Gangland Geometries: Space, Mobility and Transgression in the Veronica Guerin Films; Jenny Knell
3. ‘Don’t Use Your Own Accents!’: Representations of Dublin’s Accents in Contemporary Film; Nicholas O’Riordan
4. Beyond Horror: Surviving Abuse in Carmel Winters’ Snap; Kathleen Vejvoda

PART II: IDENTITIES OF GENDER AND STARDOM
5. Black and White and Green All Over? Emergent Irish Female Stardom in Contemporary Popular Cinemas; Ciara Barrett
6. Transcending Parochial Borders? Jonathan Rhys Meyers is Henry VIII; Liz Carville
7. Old and New Irish Ethnics: Exploring Ethnic and Gender Representation in P.S. I Love You; Silvia Dibeltulo
8. Mediating between His & Hers: An Exploration of Gender Representations and Self-Representations; Patricia Neville

PART III: NORTHERN IRELAND
9. From Belfast to Bamako: Cinema in the Era of Capitalist Realism; Stephen Baker and Greg McLaughlin
10. ‘Many Sides, Many Truths’: Collaborative Filmmaking in Transitional Northern Ireland; Laura Aguiar
11. The Suffering Male Body in Steve McQueen’s Hunger; Raita Merivirta
12. Mickybo and Me: A Cinematographic Adaptation for an International Audience; Brigitte Bastiat

PART IV: OVERSEAS PERSPECTIVES
13. Singing in the Rain: The Irish-Themed Film Musical and Schlager’s Hibernian Moment; Fergal Lenehan
14. Irish Cinema: a French Perspective; Isabelle Le Corff
15. Is Adaptation an Act of Transformation? J.B. Keane’s The Field on Screen; Noélia Borges
16. Irish Cinema in Italy: the Roma Irish Film Festa; Ciara Chambers and Barry Monahan

Bibliography
Filmography
Index

Buy: palgrave.com

Irish Film Festa 2016, submissions for short films competition are open

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“Ghost Train” by Lee Cronin – Irish Film Festa 2015 winning short (live action)

The 9th edition of IRISH FILM FESTA, which will take place from 7th to 10th April, 2016, is now open to submissions for short films from Ireland.

In order to be eligible, entries must be submitted before December 20th, 2015.

A shortlist will later be selected from all the entries for the competitive section of the festival.

Films, under 30 minutes in length, can be sent on DVD by post to

Associazione Culturale ARCHIMEDIA
via Segesta 16
00179 Roma (Italia)

Films can also be uploaded online. In this case, a private link must be sent to
info@irishfilmfesta.org or susanna@irishfilmfesta.org.

The authors of selected films will be later asked to provide a DVD copy with English subtitles (please note this is mandatory).

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“The Ledge End of Phil” by Paul Ó Muiris – Irish Film Festa 2015 winning short (animation)

9th Irish Film Festa | 7 – 10 April 2016

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Irish Film Festa 2015

The 9th edition of Irish Film Festa will take place from 7th to 10th April 2016, at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.

A section of the Festival will be dedicated to the Centenary of the Easter Rising, which in 1916 started the process that led to the Irish independence from the United Kingdom and the constitution of the Republic of Ireland.

Follow us also on Twitter (@IrishFilmFesta), Instagram (@irishfilmfesta) and on our Facebook page: you’ll find daily news about Irish cinema as well as all the updates about the festival.

Support Lost and Found, a short film featuring rescue animals

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Lost and Found is an Irish short film written and directed by Liam O’Neill that needs our help to be completed: the company have set up an Indiegogo campaign running till July 25th.

Lost and Found is about Charlie’s unconditional love for his parents, his great imagination and his resourcefulness. After the death of his dad, Charlie finds a way to help his grieving and struggling mom. He decides to kidnap local animals and claim the rewards from their owners. Like many a plan all is well at first but things don’t quite turn out the way Charlie had hoped.

Lost and Found‘s production features rescue animals and a percentage of what they’ll raise from the crowdfunding campaign will go to support the animal shelter at the Limerick Animal Welfare.

 
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Lost and Found Indiegogo Campaign > igg.me/at/lostandfoundashortfilm
Facebook > facebook.com/lostandfoundashortfilm
Twitter > twitter.com/LandF_ShortFilm

#IRISHFILMFESTA 2015 – Your Comments

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Frank

 

Thanks to our guests and audience for interacting with us through social media during the 8th edition of Irish Film Festa.

Ecco una raccolta dei vostri commenti:

Ghost Train and The Ledge End of Phil are the winning shorts of Irish Film Festa 2015

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The winning short films of the 8th edition of Irish Film Festa (March 26th – 29th, 2015) are Ghost Train by Lee Cronin (live action) and The Ledge End of Phil by Paul Ó Muiris (animation).

Special mentions to The Break by Ken Williams and Denis Fitzpatrick, The Good Word by Stuart Graham and The Measure of a Man by Ruth Meehan.

The juries were composed by Emanuela Martini (Torino Film Festival director), Emiliano Liuzzi (journalist, Fatto Quotidiano) and Áine O’Healy (Professor at Loyola Marymount University, LA) for the live action category, and by Thomas Martinelli (journalist and DOCartoon director) and Kay McCarthy (musician) for the animation one.

 

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Three questions to… Julien Regnard, director of Somewhere Down the Line

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Julien Regnard is the director of Somewhere Down the Line, one of the animated short films in competition at Irish Film Festa 2015. The short is produced under the Irish Film Board’s Frameworks scheme, exclusively dedicated to animation, and in collaboration with Cartoon Saloon (Nora Twomey, co-director of The Secret of Kells, is involved as executive producer).

Somewhere Down the Line shows a man’s life, loves and losses through the exchanges he has with the passengers in his car.

 

How did you develop this story about the passing of time?

I moved places a lot during the past few years, from Montpellier to Paris to Brussels and then to Ireland, and it made me realized how difficult it was to keep contact with the people I had met, how short and fragile were the human relationships compared to the infinity of time and space. So the film is a metaphor of this idea, a man driving on the road, getting older and older and leaving the people he meets behind him along the way.

 

How did your work on the characters animation and their integration with the backgrounds?

For the characters animation, it was pretty simple because they are drawn in 2D, we used a software called TvPaint and then did simple compositing. The tricky part was the car and the animated background. We had to paint all the views of the car in Photoshop and then project them onto the 3D model. Same for the rolling backgrounds, we painted several views of the landscape and then projected them on a 3D map. It took us a while to figure it out but in the end it was working fine.

 

The music plays a big part in Somewhere Down the Line: how did you work with the composers?

The music was composed by 3epkano which is a band specialized in doing impro live on silent films so I was very interested in working with them. We met a first time and they believed in the film straight away, we had very little money and time but they only cared about the artistic value of the project. I think they did an amazing job in the end and brought so much to the atmosphere of the film.