A Fourth Irish Film Selected For A-List Toronto International Film Festival
The feature film debut from young Irish director Rebecca Daly, THE OTHER SIDE OF SLEEP, has been officially selected for the Toronto International Film Festival next month, bringing to four the number of Irish films selected. It will have its North American premiere in the Discovery section of the A-list festival and will join ALBERT NOBBS starring Hollywood legend Glenn Close, THE MOTH DIARIES starring Irish actress Sarah Bolger and Ian Fitzgibbon's DEATH OF A SUPERHERO in the Irish line-up.
The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most successful film festivals in the world. The illustrious festival which was founded in 1976 has previously showcased independent films such as Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and Little Miss Sunshine and will take place from September 8th - 18th.
Produced by Fastnet Films (Lotus Eaters, Kisses) with finance from Bord Scannán hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB), THE OTHER SIDE OF SLEEP stars Irish actress Antonia Campbell Hughes (Lotus Eaters) and newcomers Vicky Joyce and Sam Keely.
Scripted by Daly and Glenn Montgomery and filmed on location in Offaly last year, it tells the story of Arlene who is like a ghost in her life. She lives in a small town in the midlands - surrounded by field after field, woodlands and laneways to disappear down and never come back... One morning Arlene wakes in the woods beside the body of a young woman. Someone watches from the trees. The body is soon discovered and suspicion spreads through the community. Increasingly drawn to the girl's family - her grieving sister and accused boyfriend - Arlene barricades herself in at night, afraid to sleep. Haunted by grief buried and delayed, Arlene's sleeping and waking realities soon blur. And all this time someone is watching her.
The selection for the Toronto International Film Festival follows on from its screening at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was officially selected for the Directors Fortnight strand, in May.
THE OTHER SIDE OF SLEEP was produced by Irish company Fastnet Films (Colony, Kisses), and European co-producers Rinkel Film & TV Productions and KMH Film Productions. The film was funded by the IFB, the Netherlands Film Fund and Hungarian Motion Pictures Foundation.
As well as films being official selected for the festival, Irish producer Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica Entertainment (Perfect Sense, Song For A Raggy Boy) has been chosen as one of 12 European and 12 Canadian producers to participate in the Producers Lab Toronto which runs during the festival. The programme offers a platform to combine creative, technical and financial energy and is an opportunity to gain knowledge about international markets and film projects and identify the potential for concrete Canadian-European co-productions.
The Toronto International Film Festival will take place 8th - 18th September.
More About DEATH OF A SUPERHERO
Ian Fitzgibbon's DEATH OF A SUPERHERO will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based on the novel ‘Death of a Superhero' by internationally acclaimed author Anthony McCarten, who also wrote the screenplay, the film tells the story of Donald Clarke who, like most teenage boys craves sex and adventure but, unfortunately has a fatal disease. He's gifted, and has found a way to bring his considerable imagination to life through graphic art and comic drawings. When Shelly arrives on the scene, cool and different from all the other girls, Donald falls for her and the rest of his life suddenly looks a lot brighter with her around....
It stars Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, Ink Heart), Thomas Brodie Sangster (Love Actually, Nowhere Boy), Michael McElhatton (Intermission, Adam & Paul, I Went Down), Jessica Schwarz (Perfume, The Door) and Aisling Loftus. Produced by Michael Garland for Grand Pictures (Ireland) and Astrid Kahmke and Philipp Kreuzer for Bavaria Pictures, it was funded by the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board, German Federal Film Board, FilmFersehFonds Bavaria, Bavarian Banking Fund and MEDIA.
More About THE MOTH DIARIES
Starring Irish actress Sarah Bolger (The Tudors, In America) along with Lily Cole (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) and Scott Speedman (Underworld), Mary Hannon's THE MOTH DIARIES is a powerful emotional drama where eroticism and death are entwined when a teenage girl at a boarding school suspects her roommate is a vampire. The film is based on the debut novel of Rachel Klein of the same name.
THE MOTH DIARIES is to have its world premiere at the 68th Venice International Film Festival which takes place August 31st - September 10th before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Irish-Canadian co-production was produced by David Collins for Samson Films in association with Strada Films and Mediamax and received finance from Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board, Telefilm Canada, Alliance and Lionsgate. The sales agent Wild Bunch has sold the film to numerous territories throughout the world including Pan Vision in Scandinavia.
More About ALBERT NOBBS
ALBERT NOBBS stars five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close as a woman passing as a man in order to work and survive in 19th century Dublin. The film which shot on location around Dublin city centre earlier this year is also produced by Close.
The film which will have its world premiere at a special gala presentation at the Toronto festival, boasts an all-star line-up including Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre), Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy), Janet McTeer (Into the Storm, Tumbleweeds), Pauline Collins (You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Shirley Valentine) as well as Irish actors Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Tudors) and Brendan Gleeson (The Guard).
The film was produced by Alan Moloney for Parallel Films in Ireland along with Glenn Close, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn with funding from the Irish Film Board. The US rights to the film were recently acquired by Liddell Entertainment and Roadside Attractions and a US release is likely before the end of the year.
Close won an Obie Award in 1982 for playing the Nobbs character Off-Broadway in Simone Benmussa's theatrical interpretation of the same George Moore novella that the film is based upon, "The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs," and she has been passionate to bring the character to the screen for almost 30 years. The New York Times raved of Close on stage, "The performance is transforming." Industry pundits already rank her among those likely to be vying for an Oscar this season.
Rodrigo Garcia (Mother And Child) directs ALBERT NOBBS from a script that Gabriella Prekop, Man Booker prize-winning novelist John Banville and Glenn Close wrote based on a story by Istvan Szabo, adapted from the Moore novella. ALBERT NOBBS marks Close's first screenplay credit, as well as her feature film producing debut. . Production companies are Trillium Productions, Mockingbird Pictures and Parallel Film Productions, with support from WestEnd Films and Chrysalis Films, as well as the participation of the Irish Film Board. The director of photography is Michael McDonough, the production designer is Oscar-winner Patrizia Von Brandenstein, the transformative make-up is by Oscar-winner Matthew Mungle, the editor is Steven Weisberg, the costume designer is Pierre-Yves Gayraud, and the composer is Brian Byrne.