The inaugural Sky Road TV & Film Festival takes place this weekend in Clifden, Co. Galway
The Sky Road TV & Film Festival, an exciting new three day event kicks off today at the Station House Theatre in Clifden, Co. Galway and continues until Sunday September 7th The line up includes an exciting selection of Irish TV and filmmaking talent across features, shorts, documentaries and new media in both English and Irish language.
The festival will bring unexpected stories to audiences throughout the three days, both entertaining and thought-provoking from a broad range of emerging and established filmmakers, all of whom will be in the running for the Festival awards which will be announced on the Sunday night following the closing film.
There will be prizes for Best Feature Film, Best Feature Documentary, Best Short Documentary and Best Documentary Series, as well as awards for New Media shorts. The prize for Best Short Film is sponsored by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB).
The Festival programme will present over 60 screenings during the week-end and features a number of IFB funded projects including the feature documentary Blood Fruit. Directed by Sinéad O'Brien and produced by Noel Pearson Blood Fruit examines the events which led to Dunnes Stores workers striking after taking a stance against the South African apartheid regime in the 1980s.
Also screening are two short documentaries funded under the IFBs Reality Bites scheme; Analogue People in a Digital Age, directed by Keith Walsh and Ciaran Cassidy's The Last Days of Peter Bergmann.
An exciting opportunity also awaits aspiring filmmakers at the festival. TG4 are offering filmmakers a chance to pitch their ideas to make a 25 minute documentary worth €25,000. Participants will have the chance to pitch to commissioning editors on stage at the Festival in either the Irish or English language.
For a full line up of screenings and events visit http://www.skyroadfilmfestival.ie/