Lights Camera Action - 55th Corona Cork Film Festival is back
The 55th Corona Cork Film Festival, Ireland's oldest film festival will take place from November 7-14 and screen 300 films over 8 days and nights. Big budget films, world cinema, independent films, international documentaries and short films from all over the world, makes this annual extravaganza of film an event not to miss.
The Festival opens on Sunday November 7 with the screening of Never Let Me Go directed by Mark Romanek and based on the highly acclaimed, bestselling novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go is a remarkable story of love, loss and hidden truths and stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield. The Festival will close on November 14 with the much-anticipated screening of Somewhere directed by Academy Award-winning writer and director Sofia Coppola.
Michael Barry of Barry & Fitzwilliam (distributors of Corona Extra) in welcoming film-goers to Cork, said: ‘Screening over 300 Irish and international features, documentaries and short films is a logistical triumph for the festival and is a welcome boost for the Cork region at this time of year. The eight days and nights of screenings at Cork Opera House serves to utilize that wonderful space admirably and the fringe events are varied and exciting.
Barry & Fitzwilliam is once again proud of its title sponsorship of the Corona Cork Film Festival and congratulates all those involved, particularly the legion of volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make the festival the best it can be. Enjoy a cool Corona Extra and let's view, review and experience the action, thrills, horror, drama, and comedy that film has to offer again this year at the festival.'
The Corona Cork Film Festival will screen an array of Irish and International feature films including Tuesday Before Christmas, an unforgettable profile of a man in crisis as he is forced to choose between his lover and his wife, The Black Panther, a must for film noir lovers and The American, directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney as an assassin hiding out in Italy for one last assignment. The Myth of the American Sleepover is a poignant tender coming-of-age drama while Woman Without Piano is an intimate comic portrait of an anonymous housewife at the turn of the 21st century in Madrid.
Other features of note include Perestroika directed by Sarah Turner which was last month's ‘Film of the Month' in Sight and Sound and Enter the Void, directed by Gasper Noé who previously directed the highly controversial film Irreversible. Five Day Shelter looks at Ireland today and follows several characters through an urban landscape.
The Festival has long been a platform for documentary makers and documentaries not to miss include Who Is Dervla Murphy? a wonderful profile of Ireland's foremost travel writer, Waiting for Superman, which gives a fascinating insight into the American Public Education system and Benda Bililli, a remarkable film about a group of seven Congolese musicians, four of whom are paraplegic. The World Premier of Dreaming The Quiet Man, which features contributions from Martin Scorsese, Jim Sheridan and Maureen O'Hara, is a must for lovers of the Oscar-winning film The Quiet Man. The film will screen on Friday, November 12 in Cork Opera House and Maureen O'Hara will attend the screening.
OutLook celebrates its twentieth year bringing LGBT filmmaking to Cork. Programme highlights include Loose Cannons, an Italian comedy-drama about a gay man trying to reconcile his out gay life in Rome with the trappings of his conservative family and Stonewall Uprising, which uses accounts from participants of the gay riots to retell the Stonewall tale in an exciting and engaging way.
The Festival will pay tribute to Swedish video-artist Johanna Billing and to Mark Nugent, filmmaker, digital artist and writer. Renowned filmmaker Pip Chodorov will attend the festival for the screening of his documentary Free Radicals a personal guide to the cinematic avant-garde. A Secret Understanding, a series of specially commissioned music films made by visual artists will take place in the Triskel Arts Centre while award-winning Irish artist Paki Smith will project his unique film on the walls of the Cork Opera House.
The Corona Cork Film Festival once again continues to fly the flag for short filmmakers and will screen over 28 Programmes of Irish and International Short Films including a four-programme tribute to shorts from Portugal. Filmmakers from 27 countries will compete to win Cork's prestigious Best International Short Film Award.
For the full programme of screenings and tickets check out http://www.corkfilmfest.org/. Tickets are also available from the Festival Box Office in the Cork Opera House. Tel 021 4271160.
Corona Cork Film Festival acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council.