Boston CFE, 'Paradiso' & San Fran Irish Winners | The Irish Film & Television Network

San Francisco Announces Winners of 7th Annual Event
‘One Hundred Mornings’ writer and director, Conor Horgan has won the New Director's Award at the seventh annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival. The Festival screened 15 Irish films at the end of September and welcomed over 1,000 attendees over three days – the biggest attendance the event has ever had.

Conor accepted his award following a screening of ‘One Hundred Mornings’ and commented afterwards that “The San Francisco Irish Film Festival is a hugely friendly and well thought-out affair. Festival director Niall McKay and his team put on a great show, with appreciative audiences watching the very best of current Irish films in the beautiful, 100-year-old Roxie Theater. I had a fantastic time showing my film there, and am really looking to coming back."

Other festival winners included Mark Doherty who won the Best Screenplay award for ‘A Film with Me In It’, while John Butler, who directed ‘The Ballad of Kid Kanturk’, won Best Director for a short film. Aideen O’Sullivan and Ross Whittaker saw their short ‘Bye Bye Now’ receive a special mention.

Commenting on the event festival director Niall McKay explained that: “Any festival is only as strong as its films. The quality of the films has gone from good to great in the seven years that I have been programming the festival.”

Now in its seventh successful year, the San Francisco Irish Film Festival aims to be a celebration of new Irish cinema. Niall and his team will be co-presenting Paul Fraser’s ‘My Brothers’ with the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2010. For more information about the recent film festival visit www.sfirishfilm.com.

Boston Irish Film Festival accepting entries

The Irish Film Festival, Boston is currently accepting entries for this year’s 12th instalment of the annual event. The deadline for submissions is November 30th .The festival was inaugurated in 2003 as a way of honouring filmmakers whose work celebrates the very best of Ireland.

Submissions are being accepted in the categories of Best Feature, Best Short/Animation, & Best Documentary. The winners of each category will receive flight and accommodation to attend the event as well as various other prizes awarded by festival partners and sponsors. Awards will be handed out during the festival following a special screening of the winning films.

The festival will take place in Boston’s Stuart Street Theatre on 24 - 27 March, whilst its bespoke Film Market will run Friday March 25th and Saturday March 26th in Boston. The festival’s Co-Director Dawn Morrissey has explained the reasoning behind the new film market, saying: “Having consulted with many filmmakers and distributors both sides of the pond, we decided to also host a “Bespoke film market” at the festival. Irish filmmakers will get matched with American distributors, who are interested in seeing their work. It allows both parties the opportunity to see how an American audience reacts to an Irish film- a test screening so to speak!”

For more submission information visit www.irishfilmfesitival.com

‘Paradiso’ enjoys Chichester International Film Festival Audience win

‘Paradiso’ has won the Audience Award at the Chichester International Film Festival. The Besom Productions film, directed by Alessandro Negrini and produced by Margo Harkin (Waveriders) is set in Derry and sees Northern Irish man, Roy Arbuckle decide it’s time to challenge one of the monstrosities left by the war: fear.

The hour long documentary centres around a major dance night organised in a bid to get Protestants and Catholics dancing together again in The Fountain, a dying Protestant district. Commissioned by the BBC, the film also recently won the 2010 Arcipelago Rome Film Festival prize of Best Documentary Award and the Best Documentary Award in the Independent Films Section at Dhaka International Film Festival. The director of photography is Odd Geir Saether (Turnaround).

For a full list of winners at the Chichester International Film Festival visit www.chichestercinema.org/film-festival

	Free Industry Newsletter

Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week. Click here to sign up.