Shorts News: 'Tufty', 'Remarkable' & 'Craic' | The Irish Film & Television Network

‘Tufty’ travels to Sitges and Edinburgh

Irish short ‘Tufty’ continues its international travels by screening at the prestigious 43rd Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia on 11th October. The short recently also screened at the 17th Dead by Dawn festival, Scotland’s International Horror Film Festival on October 9th.

‘Tufty’ has also previously screened internationally at Clermont-Ferrand 2010 and Curtocircuito 2010, Santiago De Compostela, Spain among others. Nationally it has been shown in competition at the Belfast Film Festival and Galway Film Fleadh.

‘Tufty’ is written and directed by brothers Jason Butler (Butchers) and Brendan Butler (Headstone) and produced by Dave Leahy (The Pool) of Warrior Films. Described by the team as “Apocalypto with Teddy Bears”, the short stars Una Kavangh (Garage) and IFTA winning actor Brendan Conroy (Sunshower).

‘Miss Remarkable’ Claims Best Short at Nordisk Fest

Irish/Swedish co-production, ‘Miss Remarkable & Her Career’ has scooped the Best Short prize at the Nordisk Panorama Film Festival which took place between the 24th and 29th of September. Written and directed by Joanna Rubin Dranger and produced by Jeremy Purcell (effects designer, The 3 Wise Men), the short is a darkly comedic animation which tells the tale of Miss Remarkable’s struggles in the areas of parenting and her career. The film is a co-production between Galway’s A Man & Ink and Sweden’s Lisbett Gabreilsson.

Nordisk Panorama, held this year in Norway, is a five Cities Film Festival which aims to be a good place to find new, soulful, cutting-edge work. Running since 1989, the festival has rotated annually between the five Nordic countries Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

‘Miss Remarkable & her Career’ was chosen from 37 Short Films to take the Nordisk Panorama Short Film Award. The jury described the film as: “An intelligent and humorous exploration into the complexities of a fragile state of mind. Miss Remarkable unravels layer upon layer of real life situations, using animation to depict an inner state to which the audience can relate.”

‘Craic Whores’ Starts Broadcast

Monday, October 11th and 18th will see the transmission of ‘Craic Whores’ and ‘Craic Whores 2: The Ballad of Slutmagic’ respectively. The two comedy shorts are written and directed by George Kane (Sketchy with Diarmuid Corr). This is the first broadcast for ‘Craic Whores 2’, the first film having screened in August 2009.

Set in Toronto, ‘Craic Whores’ centres around the Parkdale flat party debacle caused by Irishmen abroad, Ciaran and Karl. A combination of sex, drunkenness, bad dancing and flagrant misuse of the Irish language puts a dent in Irish/Canadian relations. ‘Craic Whores 2’ sees the Canadians, Bowman & Sandra, disastrously reunited with Karl and Ciaran in the lead-up to their first shambolic Dublin gig with their band, Slutmagic.

With locations in Toronto, Dublin and Australia, both films were made completely independently and feature a mix of professional and non-professional actors and musicians performing without the aid of a script. Dialogue was developed with the cast through improvisation and rehearsal around a set story structure.

The films star Karl Argue (Savage), Keiron Black (The Amazing Few), Ciaran O'Grady (The Tudors), Daniela Vanasco (BitterSweet), Kevin Marron (Swansong), Liam Hourican (iCandy), Mike Poblete (The New York Monologues) and Toronto one-man band, Mayor McCa.

’Craic Whores’ screens tonight on RTÉ Two at 11.35pm. and ‘Craic Whores 2: The Ballad of Slutmagic’ screens on RTÉ Two on Monday, Oct 18th. At a time that is TBC.

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