Irish Festival News: ‘Watch me, I’m Irish’ programme at Helsinki Film Festival, ‘The Runway’ wins in Frankfurt
16 Sep 2011 :
Tweet Helsinki International Film Festival, which kicked off yesterday, will screen a programme of Irish features and shorts including box-office record breaker ‘The Guard’, Ian Palmer’s bare-knuckle boxing documentary ‘Knuckle’ and Ripple World Pictures’ Irish-Finnish co-production ‘Parked’. Irish stars to attending the festival include Colm Meaney, who will be present for the screening of ‘Parked’ with fellow ‘Parked’ co-star and Finnish actress Milka Ahlroth, and director Risteard O’Domhnaill, whose feature length documentary on the Corrib Gas Pipeline ‘The Pipe’ will be screened at the festival. ‘Knuckle’ helmer Ian Palmer will also attend the Finnish Festival. Other Irish features to be screened at the festival include Tom Hall’s ‘Sensation’ and Rebecca Daly’s ‘The Other Side of Sleep’. Shorts in the ‘Watch me, I’m Irish’ programming strand include Nick Kelly’s ‘The Shoe’, Terence White’s ‘The Night Nurse’, Ruairi Robinson’s ‘Blinky’ and Ross Whitaker’s ‘Bye Bye Now’. This is the second year that the Helsinki International Film Festival has featured an Irish programme. Last year, Irish features including ‘Ondine’, ‘The Secret of Kells’, ‘Gabriel Byrne: Stories From Home’ and ‘His & Hers’ were all screened in Helsinki. The 24th Helsinki International Film Festival will run from 15-25th September. For more information on the Helsinki International Film Festival Programme, click click here. The Runway Fastnet Film’s ‘The Runway’, directed by Ian Power, has picked up the Lucas Award for the best feature film at the Lucas International Children’s Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. Along with the award, the film received a cash prize and the special ‘Golden Letter’ award which provides a complete subtitling in a European language of the filmmaker’s choice. Now in its 34th year, The LUCAS International Children’s Film Festival presents exciting new films for children and young people and is the leading festival of its kind in Germany. The festival took place from September 4th to September 11th. Produced by Macdara Kelleher (The Other Side of Sleep, Kisses), The Runway is the story of nine-year-old Paco as he grows up in County Cork in 1983. For Paco, “Nothin’ ever happens around here”. But all this suddenly changes when late one night he witnesses a plane crash just outside the village, and discovers Ernesto, the plane’s mysterious Colombian pilot who doesn’t speak a word of English. Determined to help him get his plane back in the air, Paco convinces the whole town to rally together and build a runway to get Ernesto home. The Runway is inspired by the true story of a pilot from South America who made an emergency landing on Mallow racecourse Co. Cork, in 1983. Funded by Bord Scánnan na hÉireann/Irish Film Board, Film Fund Luxembourg and Film I Väst, ‘The Runway’ was co-produced with Fastnet Films by Lucil Film of Luxembourg. The film is being sold worldwide by SixSales and earlier in 2011 received its domestic release in Ireland. 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.

Contact Us | Advertise | Copyright | Terms & Conditions | Security & Privacy | RSS Feed | Twitter