IFI to Celebrate Jim Sheridan's Career With A Special Season Of His Films
The IFI celebrates Jim Sheridan's career with Jim Sheridan: In Focus, a special season featuring his key films and featuring special guest appearances from the director and many of his collaborators including Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh O'Conor, Brenda Fricker, Peter Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan.The IFI presents a wide-ranging season of the work of one of the key figures in contemporary Irish film - director, actor, producer and writer Jim Sheridan. A storyteller who has taken Ireland's stories and given them a global resonance, Sheridan is responsible for many of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of the past twenty years. The IFI's retrospective focuses on eight key films since he burst on to the international scene with his stunning debut My Left Foot.
IFI Director Sarah Glennie announced the season saying ‘Jim Sheridan's exceptional body of work has not only been recognised domestically but has proven itself on the international stage many times. He has become a key figure in shaping the world's perception of Ireland and its diaspora. We are thrilled and honoured to be working so closely with him and so many of his collaborators in presenting this season focusing on the highlights of his career.'
Jim Sheridan: In Focus will feature a special public conversation with Jim and his brother Peter that promises to be illuminating as well as entertaining on February the 5th at 4.30pm. In addition many of the screenings will be attended by, introduced by or feature discussions with Jim and some of his key collaborators including Peter and Kirsten Sheridan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh O'Conor and Brenda Fricker (For full details of appearances please see listings details below this release).
Originally from Sherriff Street, in Dublin's North Inner City, Jim Sheridan first emerged as a socially committed playwright, actor and director at the Project Arts Centre, often in collaboration with his brother Peter Sheridan. Mobile Homes, the earliest film in the season from the late 1970s, is an RTÉ adaptation of a play written by Jim Sheridan and who also takes the lead role. In 1981 Jim Sheridan joined in what was to be a generation defining experience of emigration, moving with his family first to Canada, and then to New York to run the Irish Arts Centre; a period dramatised much later with his daughters Kirsten and Naomi in In America.
It wasn't until 1989 that My Left Foot was made and instantly established his global reputation with five Academy Award nominations including wins for Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, and includes Hugh O'Conor's extraordinary performance as young Christie Brown, the real-life young Dubliner who had battled against cerebral palsy to become an accomplished artist and writer.
After this initial success, Jim Sheridan went on to film The Field, based on John B. Keane's stage play, with Richard Harris as an unforgettable Bull McCabe. This epic tale of land rights and murder, with the Irish past imagined as a bleak Oedipal tragedy, shocked critics and audiences but, along with My Left Foot, helped shake international perceptions of Ireland out of the bucolic days of The Quiet Man.
In the Name of the Father was made three years and was a mainstream international hit, picking up seven Academy Award nominations. In the Name of the Father was the start of a trio of films that dealt with the Troubles including The Boxer and Some Mother's Son (directed by Terry George, but which Sheridan produced). The fictionalised account of the miscarriage of justice that led to the Guildford Four's wrongful imprisonment features exceptional performances from Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon and the late Pete Postlethwaite as his father. This season presents all three of these Troubles films.
In America is Sheridan's most personal film, a semi-autobiographical tale of a young Irish family settling in New York. Written with his daughters and shot in the aftermath of 9/11, In America is a story about coming to terms with bereavement and one that implicitly acknowledges the childhood death of Sheridan's brother Frankie, yet is also a heart-warming piece filled with celebrations of life and the most successful Sheridan film of the last ten years.
Sheridan returned to the Troubles to produce Paul Greengrass' acclaimed Bloody Sunday, a reconstruction of the events of 30th January 1972 when British paratroopers open-fired on a civil rights march in Derry. The season concludes with 2009's Brothers, Sheridan's most recent film, with strong performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Toby Maguire and Natalie Portman but, as with Emma and Sarah Bolger in In America, Sheridan elicits the most outstanding performance from Bailee Madison, the child lead. Upcoming projects include Dreamhouse, set for release later this year, and tipped for a role directing the adaptation of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl it seems that Sheridan will remain one of Ireland's leading filmmakers for many years to come.
Jim Sheridan: In Focus - Listings Details
Opening Film: My Left Foot (1989) Feb 3rd 18.00
The season will be launched by Daniel Day-Lewis at this gala with guests Brenda Fricker, Hugh O'Conor and Jim Sheridan.
Mobile Homes (directed by Pat O'Connor 1979)
Feb 5th 15.00
This screening will be introduced by Peter Sheridan
Jim Sheridan Interview...
Feb 5th 4.30
A public conversation between Jim and Peter Sheridan
The Field (1990)
Feb 7th 18.15
This screening will include a talk with guests Jim Sheridan, Luke Gibbbons and Brenda Fricker
In The Name of the Father (1993) Feb 8th 18.00
This screening is dedicated to the memory of Pete Postlethwaite
Some Mother's Son (directed by Terry George, 1996)
Feb 9th 18.40
The Boxer (1997)
Feb 10th 18.40
In America (2002)
Feb 12th 16.00
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Jim Sheridan and co-author of the film's screenplay, Kirsten Sheridan.
Bloody Sunday (directed by Paul Greengrass, 2002)
Feb 13th 14.00
Brothers (2009)
Feb 21st 19.00
Tickets are available from the IFI Box Office in person, by telephone 01 679 3477 and online