'Nothing Personal' was co-produced by Fastnet Films' Macdara Kelleher and Morgan Bushe, and filmed on location in Connemara. It follows a growing intimacy between a young runaway played by Dutch actress Lotte Verbeek and Stephen Rea's reclusive wax-jacket clad loner in the Galway drizzle. The low-budget feature has already won the Best First Film and Best Actress awards at this year's Locarno Film Festival and five prizes including Best Film at the 2009 Dutch Film Festival.
This year's SEFF featured a heavy Irish presence. The festival opened with a gala screening of Danis Tanovic's new 1980’s Dublin set 'Triage' and the film's lead Colin Farrell and producer Alan Moloney took to the red carpet alongside co-stars Paz Vega and Christopher Lee. Lance Daly's low-budget Dublin fable ‘Kisses’ screened in the European Film Academy Selection, while Irish director Ken Wardrop's short 'The Herd' was part of the European Film Academy selected Short Matters! '09 selection. 'Fish Tank', starring Irish actor Michael Fassbender and directed by British helmer Andrea Arnold, competed in the festival's Official Selection.
The festival, now in its sixth year, took place from 6th to 14th of November and featured over 150 films from all over Europe. 'Lourdes', a thought provoker about miracles from Austrian director Jessica Hausner won the SEFF's top award - the Gold Giraldillo - while other prize winners included young British director Malcolm Venville's empathetic cockney noir '44 Inch Chest' (Special Jury Prize), Hungarian director Roland Vranik's dystopic 'Transmission' (Best Director) and French director Jacques Audiard's Corsican prison set 'The Prophet' (Audience Award).
The nominations for the 2009 European Film Academy Awards were also announced during the festival. Irish films 'The Secret of Kells', from director Tomm Moore, and 'Niko & The Way to the Stars', produced by Galway-based Magma Films, will do battle for the EFA's Animated Feature Film prize. Wardrop's 'The Herd' is nominated in the EFA short film category, while Fassbender’s ‘Fish Tank’ received recognition in both the Best Film and Best Director categories. The 'European Oscars' awards night takes place in Bochum, Germany on 12 December 2009.
Irish journalist Dermot Corrigan has kept a blog of his time at the Seville Film Festival. To follow his updates visit www.filmandfestivals.com or www.dermotcorrigan.com. For more information about the European Film Festival visit www.festivaldesevilla.com
