Don’t Miss Irish Films at Movie Fest This Weekend
Irish audiences will get the opportunity to have a preview of upcoming Irish titles PARKED, SENSATION and LOTUS EATERS and the Irish filmed HAYWIRE as well as see the award-winning Irish short SHOE and the Animated in Ireland trailer at this weekend's Movie Fest.Modelled on the annual Comic Con, which took place recently in San Diego, Ireland's Movie Fest will showcase films and exclusive footage from upcoming blockbusters. Taking place in Cineworld, Dublin, Movie Fest will screen previews of major Hollywood films including Fright Night, The Change Up, Cowboys and Aliens and 30 Minutes or Less.
Vincent Donnelly, creator of Movie Fest said "We're delighted to have content from the Irish Film Board showing at Movie Fest in Cineworld this weekend. Comic Con style events happen all over the world and are being used more and more as a launch pad by studios, revealing early footage and trailers to an influential audience. I love that footage from multi-million blockbusters is mixed in with snippets from quality Irish film, showing the amazing talent we have in the country".
The festival will also include presentations from major Hollywood studios, which will reveal never-before-seen footage and trailers from some of the most highly anticipated films of 2011 and 2012, including material from Steven Soderbergh's Haywire which filmed on location in Ireland last year and Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson's special video-greeting will play ahead of an exclusive four minute preview of The Adventures of Tin Tin and Guillermo Del Toro has sent a greeting to introduce his latest Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Also in the line up is Tower Heist starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy; footage from The Amazing Spider-Man and a five minute clip from the new Total Recall film which stars Colin Farrell.
Sneak previews of upcoming Irish films Parked and Sensation will screen on Saturday 13th and Lotus Eaters, Shoe and the Animated in Ireland trailer will screen on Sunday.
About PARKED
Directed by Darragh Byrne and written by Ciaran Creagh PARKED follows Fred Daly, who lives in his nondescript car in a car park by the coast. He is shut off from the world, until the ever-positive drug addict Cathal parks his little yellow car beside Fred's. Starring Colm Meaney, Colin Morgan and Milka Ahlroth, it was the joint winner of the Best First Feature prize at the Galway Film Fleadh and was officially selected for festivals in Rotterdam, Torino, Newport and Boston.
Produced by Jacqueline Kerrin and Dominic Wright for Ripple World Pictures and Aleksi Bardy for Helsinki-filmi, it was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board (IFB) and Finnish Film Foundation.
About SENSATIONTom Hall's SENSATION which stars Domhnall Gleeson (When Harvey Met Bob, True Grit) details the relationship between Sligo farmer Donal and a veteran Kiwi escort, Kim. They begin as client and call-girl, evolve into genuine lovers, then business partners and finally co-defendants. Donal longs for love and meaning but settles for sex and status. He will come to realise that they're not the same thing and will ultimately be faced with the prospect of betraying Kim to save himself. The question is, save himself for what?
Produced by Katie Holly and Kieron J. Walsh for Blinder Films, it was financed by BSÉ/IFB, Rotterdam Film Fund, Screen Scene and has been chosen to screen at a number of festivals including Toronto, Rotterdam, London and Vilnius in Lithuania.
About LOTUS EATERS
Written by Alexandra McGuinness with Brendan Grant, the film, which is Alexandra's directorial debut, stars Irish actress and IFTA Rising Star nominee Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Albert Nobbs, The Other Side of Sleep, When Harvey Met Bob) along with Benn Northover and Cynthia Fortune Ryan.
The bright young things of London's social elite lead an existence as languorous and lavish as it is self-destructive. At the centre is Alice, a stunning ex-model unable to keep up with the high standards of living her peers feverishly chase. The film presents a contemporary black-and-white portrait of overlapping cliques of friends struggling to get their lives under control before they fall numb to it all.
LOTUS EATERS was produced by Fastnet Films with funding from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB). It filmed on location in Wicklow and Westmeath and premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival.
About HAYWIRE
HAYWIRE, directed by Hollywood legend Steven Soderbergh stars Gina Carano as a block ops super soldier who seeks payback after she is betrayed and is set up during a mission. Shot in various locations around Dublin and Wicklow last year, the film boasts a stellar cast including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Antonio Banderas.
About SHOE
Written and directed by Nick Kelly, SHOE stars Peter Coonan (Between The Canals) and Pat Kinevane (Mystics) and tells the story of Vince who is about to kill himself - but that crazy beggar keeps killing the mood. The film was produced by Seamus Byrne and Zanita Films (Eamon) and was funded through the BSÉ/IFB Signatures short filmmaking scheme which encourages the making of live-action fiction films. It shot in locations in Kerry and Dublin last year.