Spotlight on Irish Films at Major UK Festivals
Seven Irish films will screen at two of the UK's most important film festivals this month with the documentaries KNUCKLE, BUILD SOMETHING MODERN and NEEDLE EXCHANGE screening at Sheffield Doc/Fest this week, while THE GUARD, MY BROTHERS, CHARLIE CASANOVA and OFF THE BEATEN TRACK set to screen at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Sheffield Doc/Fest runs for five days from June 8th - 12th and is fast becoming known as one of the top places in the world for people from the documentary and digital industries to get together.
Ian Palmer's powerful documentary KNUCKLE is one of the 120 films that will screen during the festival. It follows an epic 12-year journey into the world of an Irish traveller community and their brutal bare-knuckle fighting lives. The film wooed critics and buyers alike when it screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
Directed by Nicky Gogan and Paul Rowley (Seaview) and produced by Maya Derrington (Pyjama Girls), BUILD SOMETHING MODERN tells the story of Ireland's Modernist Mission in Africa. It was the recipient of the Michael Dwyer Award at the Dublin Film Critics Circle earlier this year and has just finished an exclusive release in Dublin's IFI. The short Reality Bites documentary NEEDLE EXCHANGE directed by Colm Quinn will screen in the short strand of the festival. Since premiering at last year's Cork Film Festival it has screened at numerous festivals including the Tampere Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival.
Meanwhile Irish comedy thriller THE GUARD, is set to open the Edinburgh International Film Festival on the 15the June with three other Irish titles also included in the festival line-up.
Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, THE GUARD stars Brendan Gleeson as a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to his door. The film will have its UK premiere at the festival ahead of its cinema release in July.
Paul Fraser's feature directorial debut MY BROTHERS written by William Collins will also screen at Edinburgh. When 17-year-old Noel accidentally breaks his dying father's most prized possession-a cheap wristwatch-he and his two younger brothers "borrow" the boss' bread van for a clandestine quest to replace it. But what begins as a quick road trip soon turns into an
emotional odyssey for the boys.
CHARLIE CASANOVA, which was written, produced and directed by Terry McMahon details the spiralling events of a ruling class sociopath who knocks down a working class girl in a
hit-and-run and uses a deck of playing cards to determine his fate.
Directed by Dieter Auner, OFF THE BEATEN TRACK, is a beautifully observed, powerful but gentle documentary about the changing world of shepherds in Transylvania. It has been previously selected to screen at festivals in Rotterdam, Transylvania and Belfast.
Sheffield Doc/Fest takes place June 8th - 12th while the 65thEdinburgh International Film Festival takes place from the 15th-26th June.
More about KNUCKLE
KNUCKLE was produced by Teddy Leifer for Rise Films and Ian Palmer for Seafield with finance from the IFB and BBC Storyville. Screen Daily said that KNUCKLE was "Impressively and compulsively shot.... a fascinating glimpse into a world kept usually very private".
More about NEEDLE EXCHANGE
Two recovering drug addicts practice tattooing on each other and find over time they mark each other in more ways than merely the physical. Produced through the IFB Reality Bites short documentary scheme, it premiered at last year's Corona Cork Film Festival.
More about THE GUARD
THE GUARD is an Irish/UK co-production and boasts an impressive cast including Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, Harry Potter), Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2, Crash, Hotel Rwanda), Fionnuala Flanagan (Lost, Transamerica), Liam Cunningham (Hunger, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) and Mark Strong (KickAss, Sherlock Holmes).
Produced by Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo for Reprisal Films and Ed Guiney (Garage) and Andrew Lowe (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) for Element Pictures, it was backed by the IFB as well as international financiers. Previously selected for the renowned Sundance and Berlin film festivals earlier this year it received critical acclaim with Screen Daily commenting that "The Guard will win over audiences with its zinger lines from McDonagh's script and deft casting in all the roles" while Hollywood Reporter describes it as "Scabrous, profane,violent, verbally adroit and very often hilarious, this twisted and exceptionally accomplished variation on the buddy-cop format is capped by a protean performance by Brendan Gleeson".
More about MY BROTHERS
Since its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh, MY BROTHERS has gone on to screen at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival as well as receive the Critics Choice Award at the Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington. The film was co-financed by IFB, RTÉ and Windmill Lane and was produced by Rob Walpole and Rebecca O'Flanagan for Treasure Entertainment.
More about CHARLIE CASANOVA
Receiving completion funding from IFB, CHARLIE CASANOVA has screened at numerous festivals including the Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado and the Off Camera Plus Krakow International Film Festival. It had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, where it was the first non-American film selected for the Narrative Feature Competition in six years and the first Irish film ever selected for the competition and it was also the only Irish film selected for
the ECU European Independent Film Festival in Paris earlier this year where Emmett Scanlan won the Best Actor Award for his performance as Charlie.
More about OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
The documentary follows Albin, a teenage shepherd from a remote village in Northern Transylvania, over the course of a year as he makes his way through the ever-changing environment where traditions and the slow pace of the shepherds' routine are gradually being replaced by modern values. It was produced by Suin Ni Raghallaigh, Dieter Auner, and Cristian Mungiu for Ikandi Productions with support from IFB and Mobra Films.
More about Sheffield Doc/Fest
Sheffield Doc/Fest is fast becoming known as one of the top places in the world for people from the documentary and digital industries to get together - to meet, to screen their work, share knowledge, do business, make new contacts and discuss innovations and challenges they are facing in the ever changing media landscape.
Over the past four years Sheffield Doc/Fest has massively expanded its marketplace activity, as well as its cross platform, interactive and digital programme. It attracts nearly 2000 delegates from around the globe and thousands of general public. The festival programme includes 120 films from dozens of countries, 300 speakers from the digital and docs sector
and over 150 buyers and decision makers from 20 countries participate in the marketplace.
More about Edinburgh International Film Festival
EIFF has developed into a crucial business hub for the UK and international film industry, a key attraction for Edinburgh, and one of the world's best loved audience festivals. With an emphasis upon new talent, discovery and innovation, EIFF's vibrant programme of films and events combines a commitment to audience edification and pleasure with a strong ongoing stake in the development of the UK and Scottish film industries.