Three Irish Features Selected for Norwegian Festival
The Irish feature films Eamon and Nothing Personal and the documentary His & Hers have all been officially selected to screen at the Norwegian International Film Festival which takes place in Haugesund from 18th -26th August.
Eamon, the award-winning debut feature written and directed by Margaret Corkery is an entertaining and quirky tale of a destructive love triangle between Eamon, a little boy with behavioural problems, his selfish mother Grace and his sexually frustrated father Daniel, which comes to a head on their doomed family holiday.
Starring Robert Donnelly, Amy Kirwan and Darren Healy, the film was produced by Seamus Byrne of Zanita Films. It had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic last year, where it picked up the Independent Camera Award for Best Film in Forum of Independents, and also had its North American premiere at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. It has since screened at festivals across the globe including Palm Springs, Istanbul, Turkey and Switzerland among others. Eamon was produced through the Catalyst Project which is co-financed by the IFB, BAI, TV3 and Filmbase.
Urszula Antoniak's Nothing Personal stars Stephen Rea, who will be attending the festival, and Lotte Verbeek, and tells the tale of a young woman hitching her way to the west coast of Ireland who agrees to work for an older man in exchange for food.
This Irish/Dutch co-production scooped an impressive six awards at its world premiere at Locarno International Film Festival and also won four awards at the Netherlands Film Festival. It screened at the renowned Edinburgh Film Festival earlier this year. Co-produced by Macdara Kelleher and Morgan Bushe for Fastnet Films with Rinkel Film & TV and Family Affair Films in Amsterdam, it received finance from the IFB, Dutch Film Fund, Co-BO Fund and VPRO.
Ken Wardrop's His & Hers is a charming and intimate love story told through the voice of 70 women from the midlands, exploring their relationships with the men in her life - father, boyfriend, husband, son.
Produced by Andrew Freedman for Venom Films and financed by the IFB, the documentary has been hugely successful on an international level having picked up awards including Best Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh, the Audience Award at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Best Cinematography at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize in Non-Fiction Storytelling at RiverRun International Film Festival and more recently the Best Nonfiction Foreign Jury Award at the Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan. It is currently on release in Irish cinemas, where it has been receiving critical acclaim.
The Norwegian International Film Festival is Norway's main festival for film and cinema and selects films wholly on their artistic merit and films that they feel are of interest to a Norwegian and Scandinavian audience. The festival kicks off next week in Haugesund from the 18th-26th August.