Festival Roundup: Queen’s Festival Lineup & Clones Calls for Shorts

Belfast Festival at Queen’s

The countdown to one of Ireland’s largest arts festival, the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s, is under way and organisers have announced the highlights of the festival. The film section of the 16 day event will see a celebration of the works of Korean director Hong Sangsoo,

The festival, now in its 48th year, will mark the work of Korean director Hong Sangsoo with screenings of several of his films including ‘The Day a Pig Fell into the Well’, ‘Night and Day’ and ‘The Turning Gate’. This will be the first major retrospective of Hong’s work to take place in the UK or Ireland and is curated by the Independent Cinema Office in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre. The Queen’s Film Theatre will also play host to a screening of Monty Python classic films including ‘Monty Python and the holy Grail’ on October 19th, ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ on October 20th and ‘Monty Python’s Meaning of Life’ on October 21st at 6.45pm.

Sam Taylor Wood’s biopic of John Lennon’s early days, ‘Nowhere Boy’ will screen on Friday, October 16th. The film stars newcomer Aaron Johnson alongside IFTA nominee Anne Marie Duff (Margot) and Kirsten Scott Thomas (The English Patient). The John Lennon theme will continue into the next day with a screening of the documentary ‘The U.S. vs John Lennon’ from David Leaf which chronicles Lennon’s political activism in the 70s and the White House’s heavy handed response. Other screenings include Anton Corbijn’s ‘Control’ on the 17th October; Grant Gee’s music documentary, ‘Joy Division’ on October 18th and Mat Whitecross’ ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ which stars Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers) and will screen on October 26th.

Taking place in 36 venues across the city with events happening in Theatre, Dance, Film and Visual Arts, the festival, which last year drew more than 40,000 people to the city, runs from the October 15-October 30. For more information on the festival programme or to book tickets, log on to www.belfastfestival.com or contact the festival box office Mon-Fri 9am-6pm and Sat 10am-2pm on 9097 1197.

Clones Film Festival invites Short Film Challenge entries.

Clones Film Festival 2010, in association with Clones Credit Union, has launched the
fourth annual Short Film Challenge. The challenge invites filmmakers, writers and crew to script, prep, scout locations, cast, rehearse, film, edit and present a finished short film in just 48 hours.

The prizes available to the participants will be eligible to compete for the ‘Francie’ trophy and the festival’s audience award. Each team will be given a budget of €400 to cover all expenses - petrol, phones, art dept, photocopying, costumes, make-up, catering, etc. Accommodation is not provided but festival organisers will provide assistance with accommodation seeking if necessary.

Clones Film Festival will provide a production base but the other features including location permissions, cast, props etc. is the responsibility of the filmmakers. Clones Film Festival will provide a production assistant who will liaise with the teams and act in an advisory capacity. Interested production teams are invited to submit a detailed proposal of the film they wish to make (max 200 words). Films can be any genre - drama, documentary, stop-motion animation, though it must be feasible to shoot in one day with a skeleton crew. Feasibility will be taken into account when proposals are judged. Films must be at least 3 mins long and no longer than 8 mins and must be completed over the weekend (Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th October 2010).

The deadline for receipt of the finished films is 12.00 midday on Sunday 24th October 2010. All filmmakers must furthermore be able to attend the 'Francies' award ceremony on the closing night of the festival, Sunday 24th October. For a full list of the rules and regulations would-be participants are asked to contact Seamie at info@clonesfilmfestival.com.

The deadline for entries is October 1st 2010 and entries and proposals must be submitted by e-mail. Submissions will be acknowledged within 24 hours. Send your proposal, team name and C.V. or credits of your proposed project’s Director/Producer, Camera Operator, Editor and any other key crew to info@clonesfilmfestival.com. Last year’s competition resulted in five projects which can be viewed at www.clonesfilmfestival.com.

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