Newport Beach Film Festival unveils Irish-packed 2023 Line-up, including World Premiere of Alan Friel’s Woken
Posted: 13th September 2023
The 24th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) has unveiled its lineup for this year’s festival, taking place 12th-19th October. It includes 91 films from 19 countries, including a number of Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland supported films and documentaries.
We are delighted to congratulate Alan Friel and the team behind Woken, as the film has been selected to make its World Premiere at the festival on 15th October. Starring Maxine Peake and Erin Kellyman as a woman who wakes up from an accident with no memory of who she is, and is confronted with the realisation that the human race is close to extinction, the film marks Alan Friel's feature directorial debut.
The film’s production is by Stephen Kelliher on behalf of Bankside Films; Brendan McCarthy, John McDonnell and Deirdre Levins for Fantastic Films; and Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone for Propaganda Italia, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green are Executive Producers for Bankside Films. Phil Hunt and Compton Ross are acting as Executive Producers for Head Gear Films with Niamh Fagan as Executive Producer for Screen Ireland. Bankside Films are handling international sales.
The International Spotlight strand of the festival will also host the U.S. Premiere of Ian Hunt-Duffy's Double Blind. Named a "savvy fusion of Agatha Christie suspense and David Cronenberg body horror" by Screen International, the film follows seven strangers enroll in a seemingly routine drug trial at a pharmaceutical facility, but soon discover an unexpected side effect—they are unable to fall asleep. Double Blind received its World Premiere at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, followed by an Irish Premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh. Other Screen Ireland features to screen at the festival will include Claire Dix's Sunlight, for its U.S. Premiere, and Declan Recks' Tarrac! for its Southern California Premiere.
Four Screen Ireland supported documentaries will screen at the festival. Sarah Share's The Graceless Age: The Ballad of John Murry follows American singer songwriter John Murry as he readies himself to retrace his steps back into the dark heart of American life and face his demons. Gary Lennon & Ollie Aslin's I Dream In Photos is a portrait of the Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Cathal McNaughton, who quit "the best job in the world" at the peak of his career and Donald Taylor Black's John Behan: Odyssey is a look back at Ireland's best known scultptor will screen in the Art, Architecture + Design strand of the festival. Margo Harkin's Stolen will also receive its U.S. Premiere at the Festival, and reveals how women who had the misfortune to fall pregnant ‘out of wedlock’ were treated in 20th century Ireland.
A number of Focus and Frameworks Irish shorts will screen in the Short Narrative strand of the Festival: Éabha Bortolozzo, Jack Kirwan's BOG/Portach, Aisling Conroy's The Last Set / An tSraith Dheireanach, Jessica Patterson's Worry World, Lochlainn McKenna's Two For The Road and Janna Kemperman's Shadow. More information about the 2023 round of Screen Ireland funded shorts can be found here, while more information about the 2022 round can be found here.
Vincent Lambe's Every Five Miles was supported through RTÉ and Screen Ireland's Storyland initiative. Nell Hensey's Good Chips and Zoë Brennan-Whitmore's Unhinged were winners of the Virgin Media Discovers & Screen Ireland Short Film Competition.
A retrospective screening of In the Name of the Father will be one of the festival's special screenings,with Sheridan in attendance.
The full line-up of the 24th Newport Beach Film Festival can be found here.