Strong Showing for Irish Cinema at Busan International Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival
A number of Irish films have been chosen to screen at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and the BFI London Film Festival in October. The Canal, Queen and Country and Jimmy’s Hall will be shown at the BIFF in South Korea while Queen and Country and Song of the Sea will screen in London.
The Canal will screen as part of the BIFF’s Midnight Passion event. Previous films to screen as part of this event include The Raid, Sinister, Red State and Stitches. The film, written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh, has already screened at national and international events including the Tribeca Film Festival, San Diego Comic Con and the Galway Film Fleadh. The Canal is Kavanagh’s second film to screen at Busan, following The Fading Light at the 2010 event.
Meanwhile Queen and Country and Jimmy’s Hall will screen in the world cinema category. Released to strong reviews and box office in May 2014, Jimmy’s Hall was directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty and produced in Ireland by Element Films. The film was officially selected at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Shot on location in Leitrim and Sligo, Jimmy’s Hall tells the story of Jimmy Gralton, who set up a dance hall on a rural crossroads in a sharply divided Ireland.
Queen and Country was written and directed by John Boorman. The film is a sequel to Boorman’s 1987 Oscar-nominated film Hope and Glory. The film also stars Pat Shortt, Sinead Cusack, Callum Turner, David Thewlis and Richard E. Grant.
Song of the Sea is the second feature film from Kilkenny-based animation studio Cartoon Saloon. Song of the Sea is the studio’s follow-up to The Secret of Kells, which was highly acclaimed and was nominated for an Academy Award® in the Best Animated Feature Film category in 2010. The film tells the story of the last Seal Child’s journey home. After their mother’s disappearance, Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with their Granny in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against time as they are drawn into a world which Ben only knows from his mother’s folktales. But these fairy folk have been in our world for too long, and Ben realises that Saoirse is key to their survival. The film was directed by Tomm Moore, written by Moore and Will Collins and produced by Cartoon Saloon.
The Canal, Queen and Country, Jimmy’s Hall and Song of the Sea all received support from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. The 2014 Busan International Film Festival is a major gateway to the Asian film market and will take place from October 2nd to 11th while the BFI London Film Festival will be held from October 8th to 19th.
About The Canal:
Shot in Dublin in 2013, The Canal tells the story of David Williams (Evans) and his wife, Alice (Hannah Hoekstra), who move into a beautiful period house by the canal with their small child, Billy. As David begins to suspect that his wife is cheating on him, he also starts to have nightmarish visions of an evil presence he believes inhabits his home. The Canal was financed by the IFB, FAW, Atlantic Screen Music and Egg Post Production.
About Jimmy’s Hall
Shot on location in Leitrim and Sligo, Jimmy’s Hall tells the story of Jimmy Gralton, who set up a dance hall on a rural crossroads in a sharply divided Ireland. The film was financed by the IFB, BFI and Film4.
About Queen and Country
Set in 1952, the film stars Caleb Landry Jones as an 18-year-old British man who joins the National Service and meets an amoral prankster who becomes his friend. They are assigned as instructors in a training camp while others are shipped out to fight in the Korean War. Queen and Country was financed by the IFB, BFI and La Pacte.