Announced today, Dublin International Film Festival is new film festival in Dublin scheduled for March 6th to March 13th next year.
The festival has applied for funding to The Arts Council and Dublin City Council, and the organisers are actively seeking sponsorship at present. According to the founders, Michael Dwyer (founder and programme director of the original film festival until 1991, and film correspondent with the Irish Times newspaper) and David McLoughlin (producer, Dead Bodies, and manager of the original film festival for six years until 1996), the Dublin International Film Festival is entirely unconnected to the Dublin Film Festival, which was last held in April 2001.
This new festival will be held in the Screen cinema on Hawkins Street, while
the opening and closing films and a number of special presentations will be
shown at the Savoy 1 cinema on O’Connell Street.
Festival Director Michael Dwyer: "We are already in negotiation to secure a number of major new films for the festival, and the response from the film trade has been hugely
encouraging. Details of the first confirmed titles will be announced in late
January."
Dwyer and McLoughlin are joined on the festival board of directors by:
Mary Allegeun, one of Ireland’s most experienced film line producers and
former board member of the Irish Film Board;
Sue Bruce-Smith, head of production at Little Bird Films and formerly of the
BBC Films and FilmFour;
Rory Concannon, marketing director of the Abbey Theatre and formerly of Cork
Film Festival;
Gordon Judge, one of Ireland’s leading entertainment lawyers;
Arthur Lappin, producer of Jim Sheridan’s three most recent films and of the
multiple award-winning Bloody Sunday;
Niamh McCaul, managing director of Eclipse Pictures, the independent film distribution company;
Martine Moreau of the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Dublin;
Gaby Smyth, a chartered accountant who is actively involved with a number of
Irish arts organisations.
Additional information, and comments from the current Dublin Film Festival will be published as they become available.
