The Boston Irish Film Festival (BIFF) is now accepting entries for its 5th Annual event scheduled for Spring 2003. The festival will host its first ever juried contest in three categories - feature, documentary, and short fiction/animation. The Entry Fee per submission is $40 U.S., or 42.64 EURO. The deadline is December 20, 2002.
As the largest event of its kind in the United States, BIFF is an important and valuable showcase for Irish and Irish-related films. Past screenings have included the world premieres of Patrick Bergin’s Some Other Place and the U.S. premieres of Divorcing Jack, Rat, Traveller (May the Road Rise Up), and Wild About Harry, and the Boston premiere of Bloody Sunday. Among those who have attended our screenings are Colin Bateman, Pat Murphy, Cathal Black, Malachy McCourt, Peadar O Riada, Don Mullan, and James Flynn.
This year’s addition of a juried competition furthers BIFF’s commitment to excellence in Irish cinema and more than ever recognizes those artists whose work constitutes that excellence.
AWARDS
Awards will be given to each winner in the feature, documentary, and short fiction/animation categories.
Selected by a panel of judges, the three winners will receive flight and accommodation to attend the festival as well special prizes awarded by festival partners and sponsors.
Details of awards will be listed on the festival website in the near future.
RULES & CONDITIONS
The Boston Irish Film Festival will present its first ever juried selection of narrative, documentary, and animation films and videos in 2003. Works in 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, and video formats are accepted, but the submitting film/videomaker must have complete creative control and responsibility for the completed work, i.e. have primary artistic responsibility and/or producer status. All awards will be made in these names.
CRITERIA
The festival will not accept commercial, industrial, institutionally commissioned, promotional (e.g. public services announcements, promo reels, recruitment, or public relations), music video, training/instructional/how-to works, or works created and formatted for specific news, interview, magazine, or documentary format television series. All works must have been completed within the last two years, i.e. since December 2000. Media works of all lengths are eligible, although no more than two works per artist may be entered. While a series of works is not eligible, an individual work from a series may be entered. All entrants must be at least 18 years of age to enter.
CATEGORIES
Works can be submitted into one of three categories—feature, documentary, and short fiction/animation.
To qualify, all entries must be Irish-made (i.e., having been produced in Ireland with significant involvement from Irish talent) and/or have Irish-related content. In addition, all entries must have been produced within the last two years and must not previously have been screened at the Boston Irish Film Festival. Finally, all entries must be completed or, if not, at least at the fine cut stage.
The Best Feature Award is open to all fiction film and video productions of 60 or more minutes in length.
The Best Documentary Award is open to all non-fiction film and video entries regardless of length.
The Best Short Fiction/Animation Award is open to all fiction live action and animation film and video productions less than 60 minutes in length.
Full details are available from the Festival Director, Peter Flynn, at email: pflynn@bfvf.org.
