Carmel Winters’ Float Like a Butterfly and Neil Jordan’s Greta To Receive World Premieres at TIFF 2018
Posted: 21st August 2018
Forthcoming features from acclaimed Irish directors join Rosie, Papi Chulo, Black 47 and Vita & Virginia in Toronto this September.
Two more Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland-supported films have been added to the line-up at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), ensuring a wide variety of Irish stories will be told at this year’s festival. Neil Jordan’s star-studded forthcoming feature, Greta, and Carmel Winters’ Float Like a Butterfly, an empowering tale of a young woman’s fight to chase her dream, have been added to the TIFF 2018 programme. Greta, will screen as a Special Presentation, while Float Like a Butterfly will be presented in the Discovery strand of the prestigious festival.
Both titles will receive their world premieres at TIFF, completing the stellar Irish film line-up at this year’s festival, which includes Paddy Breathnach’s Rosie, John Butler’s Papi Chulo, Lance Daly’s Black 47 and Chanya Button’s Vita & Virginia.
Speaking about Greta, Neil Jordan said: “There was something intriguing about the original screenplay when I read it because it was almost entirely amongst three women. It's a story about possession: an almost romantic obsession that refuses to let go. The fact that the obsessional elements of the story are motivated by a woman appealed to me and that no males played a significant part in the story was intriguing.”
Speaking about Float Like a Butterfly’s selection, Carmel Winters said: “I am tremendously proud that Float Like a Butterfly will fly the flag in Toronto. It's a film about a girl's fight for the right to be the Greatest she can be, just like her hero Muhammad Ali. It was an epic battle to get it financed so it's a real triumph to have it premiere at such a prestigious festival. Let's hope it's a knock out success!”
James Hickey, Chief Executive of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland added: “Greta and Float Like a Butterfly complete an impressive line-up of Irish films at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. I’m particularly delighted to see such a wide variety of Irish stories being told from historical drama to contemporary issues of homelessness, cultural identity and friendship. TIFF serves as an excellent platform to launch these titles into the international market where they will be sold to territories around the globe.”
Directed by Academy Award®-winning Irish director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) and comprising an impressive Irish and international cast including Stephen Rea (The Crying Game), Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie) , Greta is a contemporary psychological thriller. After discovering a handbag on a New York subway train, Frances McCullen (Moretz), a young woman bereaved by her mother’s death, sets about returning it to its rightful owner. Frances subsequently strikes up an unusual friendship with enigmatic widow Greta Hideg, however Greta’s motives may be more sinister than they initially seem.
Stephen Rea, a frequent collaborator of Jordan’s features as a private detective, in the film which sees the streets of Dublin double-up as New York.
Filmed on location in West Cork, Float Like a Butterfly is a powerful and timely story of a girl’s fight for freedom and belonging. In a gender-reversal of classic film Billy Elliot, 15-year-old Frances (played by up-and-coming Irish actress Hazel Doupe) has to fight for the right to fight back. Raised in roadside camps in rural Ireland, Frances wants to champion her people inside the boxing ring and out, like her idol Muhammad Ali, but society is determined to break her spirit and destroy her way of life.
Greta is produced by James Flynn (Calvary) for Metropolitan Films alongside Lawrence Bender, Sidney Kimmel and John Penotti, with Academy Award®-nominated Seamus McGarvey (Nocturnal Animals) serving as DOP, forming part of an Irish-led team which includes multiple Emmy Award-winning costume designer Joan Bergin, production designer Anna Rackard and editor Nick Emerson.
Float Like a Butterfly is produced by Martina Niland (Sing Street) and David Collins (A Dark Song) for Samson Films.
The 2018 Toronto International Film Festival takes place from 6 – 16 September. Click here for more info.