IFB-funded short SHOE steps up to scoop Best Irish Short at Corona Short Film Festival
The short film SHOE, written and directed by Nick Kelly, picked up the prize for Best Irish Short Film at the 3rd Annual Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival which took place in Schull, Co. Cork this weekend.
The independent festival is dedicated to bringing together established and first-time filmmakers in a forum to celebrate the short film with a commitment to screen as many of the short films entered into the competitions as possible by essentially broadcasting them from their own intranet server to venues all over the village of Schull. As the village has no cinema, films were screened in pubs, restaurants, shops, the library, in a horse-box and on the sides of buildings over the three days of the festival.
Starring Peter Coonan (Between The Canals) and Pat Kinevane (Mystics), SHOE tells the story of Vince who is about to kill himself - but that crazy beggar keeps killing the mood. The film was produced by Seamus Byrne and Zanita Films (Eamon) and was funded through the BSÉ/IFB Signatures short filmmaking scheme which encourages the making of live-action fiction films. It shot in locations in Kerry and Dublin last year.
The film was one of ten live-action shorts shortlisted for Best Live Action Short at the Academy Awards® earlier this year. It has also been officially selected for the Cork Film Festival and Foyle Film Festival.
Other projects supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board included in the line-up were Ian Davis' The Night Nurse, Jason Butler's Daylight Saving Time, David Quin's Mister Heaney, A Wee Portrait, Oonagh Kearney's The Christening, Brian Williams' Dummy, David Freyne's Passing and Peter McDonald's Pentecost.
A number of events and panel discussions took place during the festival. Carmel Winters, director of Snap, Juanita Wilson, director of As If I Am Not There and Rebecca Daly, whose debut feature The Other Side of Sleep screened at the recent Cannes International Film Festival were interviewed by Gerard Stembridge. These three Irish directors have all effortlessly made the transition from short filmmaking to the longer form. David Puttnam and Sandy Lieberson were interviewed by Chairman of the British Film Institute, Greg Dyke while Fran Keaveney, Shorts Executive at BSÉ/IFB hosted a talk discussing the distribution of short film. Director Jack Gold (The Naked Civil Servent) and DOP Chris O'Dell gave a masterclass ‘From Script to Screen'.
The 3rd Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival took place from 26th-29th May. For further information see the website http://www.fastnetshortfilmfestival.com/