Irish Shorts Continue International Success
Further good news for Irish short films as The Polish Language, written by Alice Lyons, received a Special Jury Mention at the Expresión en Corto International Film Festival in Mexico, Kealan O'Rourke's Fairycatcher has been selected for the Vancouver International Film Festival, Louise Bagnall's Donkey has been selected for competition at the Animadrid International Festival in Madrid while a host of other shorts will be playing at festivals on home soil in the coming weeks.
The Polish Language, which was co-directed by Alice and Orla McHardy, is an animated film-poem about the subversive force of art and the renewal of poetry in the whispery language of Polish. The film previously picked up the Best Animation award at its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh and has been selected to screen at festivals including the Darklight Festival, Dublin, the Animated Dreams Film Festival, Estonia, the Short Film Festival Clermont Ferrand, France, the SXSW Festival, Texas and at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Produced by Steve Woods for Cel' Division, the animation was funded through the Frameworks scheme which is co-financed by the IFB, RTÉ and the Arts Council.
The Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, which took place in Mexico from 23rd July -1st August, aims to sustain and cultivate national and international cinematographic production with over 2400 short and documentary films submitted. There were 18 shorts competing in the category of Experimental Short Film, for which The Polish Language received a Special Mention.
The Fairycatcher, inspired by old fairytales, is the poignant story of a young fairy who after witnessing the brutal death of his friend at the hands of a mysterious creature, is captured by the Queen's Fairycatcher. Produced by Adrian Devane for Igloo Productions, and financed through the IFB Signatures scheme, this magical tale premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh to a great reception and will also be screening at the Greek Short Film Festival which takes place next month.
The 29th Vancouver International Film Festival will feature over 300 films to an expected audience of 150,000, aiming to represent the best in alternative and feature filmmaking from around the world. The festival will run from 30th September - 15th October.
Donkey tells the story of a donkey who is sick of his minimum wage job at the beach. Produced by Niamh O'Donoghue for Barley Films and funded through the Frameworks short scheme, which is financed by the IFB, the Arts Council and RTÉ, this short animation previously screened at the Sichuan TV Festival in China, the Cairo International Film Festival for Children in Egypt, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany and won Best Short Animation at the Darklight Film Festival. It will also be screening at the Singapore Short Film Festival which takes place from 28th August - 5th September.
A collection of short films produced by Barley Films will be screening as part of a retrospective at the Animadrid Festival including the award-winning Agricultural Report, The Rooster, the Crocodile and the Night Sky, Charred and Feathered, The Red Ball and Headspace. Headspace, an emotional piece directed by Patrick Semple and produced by Barry O'Donoghue, will have its first international screening at the Animadrid Festival, having premiered at the recent Galway Film Fleadh.
The Animadrid International Festival of the Animated Image of Pzuelo de Alarcón promotes audiovisual animation and takes place in Madrid from 23rd September - 1st October.
In other shorts news, Bye, Bye Now, a short documentary about the phone-box co-directed by Aideen O'Sullivan and Ross Whittaker and Ken Wardrop's quirky short film The Herd, with scenes from his critically acclaimed feature documentary His & Hers showing at the Terryglass Arts Festival which kicks off in Co.Tipperary from 18th - 22nd August.
Colm Quinn's No Regrets In The West, Hugh O'Conor's Corduroy, Brian Durnin's Of Best Intentions, Brian O'Malley's Screwback and Ian Power's The Wonderful Story of Kelvin Kind have all been nominated at the first ever Underground Cinema Short Irish Film Festival, which will be held in the IMC Cinema in Dun Laoghaire on 16th - 17th September.