A selection of Irish shorts have been chose to screen at the Bristol Encounters International Film Festival 2011, with seven Irish shorts screening in competition.
Included in the Animation Encounters competition at the festival are Ferg Brennan’s ‘The Fisherman’, Richard Kelly’s ‘Paperman’ and Aoife Doyle’s ‘Nana’s Strawberry Preserve’. Brief Encounter Irish competition shorts screenings include Colm Quinn’s ‘Needle Exchange’, Cathy Brady’s BIFA nominated ‘Rough Skin’, David O’Reilly’s IFTA winning ‘The External World’ and Cathal Burke’s ‘Screenshot’. Winners in each category will receive a prize up to the value of £2000. The Irish shorts were counted among the 180 shorts selected from over 1,800 entries from 66 countries. The Jury will also pick a European filmmaker from the Brief Encounters programme to represent the Bristol Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
Irish animation is also the focus of a guest programming section at the Encounters festival ‘Spotlight on Ireland – New Irish animation’, which will show projects including Ruairi Robinson’s ‘Blinky’, Jason and Brendan Butler’s ‘Daylight Saving Time’, Vincent Gallagher’s ‘Signs’, Matthew Darragh’s ‘The Monk and the Fly’, Bruce Ryder’s ‘The Meaning of Eggistence’, Giant Creative’s ‘The Last Train’, Barley Films’ ‘Headspace’, Conor Finnegan’s ‘Fluffy McCloud’ and Lorcan Finnegan’s music video ‘Little Red’ (Cathy Davey) and ‘Gravel’ (Orba Squara).
The Bristol Encounters Film Festival will take place from November 16th – 20th.
The German
In other Irish shorts news, Nick Ryan’s ‘The German’ is now available to view onlinehere. Written and directed by Nick Ryan, ‘The German’ is set in November 1940 and follows an epic duel that unfolds between two ace pilots, each willing to take the match to its ultimate conclusion. Unknown to the pilots is a fate neither has considered.
With the story created by Ruairi Robinson (Blinky) and Nick Ryan (A Lonely Sky), it stars Toby Kebbell (Dead Mans Shoes, Control) and Christian Brassington (Elizabeth, The Golden Age). It was created by Image Now films and was funded by the Irish Film Board. The short was produced by Olivia Leahy with Robbie Ryan as Director of Photography.
