Irish director, screenwriter and actor Mark O’Halloran will open Gaze, the 15th Dublin International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, on Thursday 2nd August at the Irish Film Institute. The five-day festival offers an eclectic programme of features and documentaries from Irish and international directors.
Dublin-born O’Halloran has picked up several awards for his work as a screenwriter, most recently the CICAE Art and Essai Cinema Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film ‘Garage’, directed by Lenny Abrahamson. He won the Evening Standard British Film Award for his 2004 film ‘Adam and Paul’, which also earned him an IFTA nomination for Best Screenplay.
His acting credits include the role of Bobby Sands in the 2001 film ‘H3’, an insight into the Irish Republican H-block protests inside Northern Ireland’s Maze prison. His numerous theatre roles include Darcy in the Gate theatre’s production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Orlando in ‘As You Like It’, and Happy in Belfast’s Lyric Theatre’s ‘Death of a Salesman’. He recently starred in Brendan Grant’s ‘Tonight is Cancelled’, screened at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh.
Also attending the festival will be directors Rahman Milani (Seahorses), Lisa Gornick (Tick Tock Lullaby), Alan Grossman and Aine O'Brien (Here to Stay), and Tom Maguire (Queering the Pitch). Actors from the festival’s line-up in attendance will include Fidel Taguinod and Louis Biedak, as well as producer Gal Uchovsky.
O’Halloran will address the Gaze audience for the Festival’s opening film, ‘A Four Letter Word’, at 8.30 pm on Thursday 2nd August at the IFI on Eustace Street, Temple Bar.
For a full festival line-up go to www.gaze.ie.
