Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing) will receive the inaugural Gregory Peck Excellence in the Art of Film Award at this year’s Dingle Film Festival (11 -14 September).
Legendary actor Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird), who died in 2003, has been commemorated by this Award as his grandmother hails from Dingle and he regularly visited the town throughout the years. Peck’s wife Veronique, daughter Cecilia and son Anthony will be in attendance at the festival.
Gabriel Byrne who is currently in the running for an Emmy Award for his role in the HBO series ‘In Treatment’, said of the Dingle award: “It is an honour to accept an award in memory of a great actor whose work transcends times and continues to inspire.”
Cecilia Peck, a director in her own right, will screen her documentary ‘Shut Up and Sing’ at the festival. The film is co-directed with documentary Oscar winner Barbara Kopple and centres on the country singers The Dixie Chicks in the wake of singer Natalie Maines' anti-George W. Bush statement at one of their concerts. Peck will also give a public interview discussing her father’s roots in Dingle and his legendary career.
The festival will open with a screening of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ based upon the novel written by Dublin born author John Boyne and will close with a screening of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, the film which won Gregory Peck an Academy Award for his role as Atticus Finch.
Guests at this years festival will include Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple (American Dream); Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam (and steadicam operator on 'Rocky' and 'The Shining'), who will be giving a talk in assocation with the Irish Film & Television Academy on ‘The Moving Camera’; producer Anthony Wall (No Direction Home, Arena) and producer Ned Dowd (Apocalypto).
Full details are available at: www.dinglefilmfestival.com