Two Irish Short Films to Premiere at the New York Tribeca Film Festival
- Award winning shorts at Tribeca qualify for
consideration in the Short Films category of the Annual Academy Awards
The Tribeca Film Festival has announced that two Irish films, FEAR OF FLYING written and directed by Conor Finnegan and THE GIRL WITH THE MECHANICAL MAIDEN written and directed by Andrew Legge will screen as part of their short film line-up in New York this coming April. Both films are in receipt of funding from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB).
FEAR OF FLYING tells the story of a small bird which makes the decision not to migrate for winter due to his fear of flying. Miniature sets and hand-made puppets set the scene for the animation, while Mark Doherty (A Film with Me in it) voiced main character Dougal.
In THE GIRL WITH THE MECHANICAL MAIDEN, an inventor takes an unorthodox approach to childrearing after the death of his wife.
"The two shorts we selected are incredibly visual and emotionally captivating, indicative of the creativity we have often discovered in the Irish shorts." said Sharon Badal, TFF Director of Short Film Programming and Initiatives. "These short programs run quite the emotional gamut and we look forward to surprising our moviegoers with some very unique stories this year."
FEAR OF FLYING was funded by the Frameworks short film scheme funded by the IFB, RTÉ and the Arts Council. The film picked up the Best Animation Award at the Galway Film Fleadh and the LA Shorts Festival. THE GIRL WITH THE MECHANICAL MAIDEN was funded by the Arts Council and received DCP support from the IFB.
The recipients of the Tribeca Film Festival's Best Narrative Short award and Best Documentary Short award will qualify for consideration in the Short Films category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules. Irish filmmaker Steph Green's Oscar nominated short film NEW BOY previously won the Best Narrative Short Film Award at Tribeca and went on to be nominated for an Oscar.
These two Irish short films were selected from more than 2870 submissions and will screen amongst films from 19 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, Finland, France, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Palestine, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom.