A major celebration of Irish film in China will take place at the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) today, June 16th. The event is happening as part of an extensive Irish cultural programme which is takes place at EXPO 2010 Shanghai. Irish projects including ‘Once’, ‘Michael Collins’ and ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ will screen.
Supported by Culture Ireland and presented in association with IFI Reel Ireland and the Irish Film Board a special programme of Irish contemporary and retrospective feature films including ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’, ‘Once’, ‘The Secret of Kells’, ‘Michael Collins’ and ‘My Left Foot’ along with a host of live action and animated shorts has been selected to screen at both SIFF and the Shanghai Expo 2010 to spotlight Irish film and filmmaking talent. The programme of 13 feature films includes a number of Asian premieres including ‘Triage’.
Neil Jordan's ‘Ondine’ and John and Kieran Carney's ‘Zonad’ have been nominated for the prestigious Golden Goblet Awards at SIFF which is Asia's equivalent of the Academy Awards. The two Irish films were selected from over 2,300 films from 81 countries and regions to be shortlisted with 14 other films for the awards. Other films shortlisted include Italian director Gabriele Muccino's ‘Kiss Me Again’, Canadian filmmaker Leo Pool's ‘The Last Escape’, Japanese director Masaru Shimomura's ‘Partners’ and two Chinese productions; ‘Deep in the Clouds’ by Liu Jie and ‘Ocean Heaven’ by Xue Xiaolu. This is the first time that an Irish film has been nominated for the accolade.
The 13th SIFF is the only A category film festival in China and is due to attract over 300,000 cinemagoers this year. The Jury President of the Golden Goblet Award is veteran film director John Woo. Some of the Irish talent attending SIFF include Kieran Carney (director of Zonad), Andrew Lowe (producer of Zonad) and Simon Delaney (Bacthelors’ Walk) who starred as Zonad in the film. Screenings of ‘Zonad’ and ‘Ondine’ will coincide with President Mary McAleese's visit to EXPO 2010 to mark Ireland's National Day on 17th June.
Eugene Downes, Chief Executive of Culture Ireland, the state agency for the promotion of Irish arts abroad, commented: "This is a great opportunity for Chinese audiences to connect with Irish film, and with Ireland."
Simon Perry, Chief Executive of Bord Scannan na heireann/the Irish Film Board said: "The inclusion of a programme of Irish cinema at these two major Chinese film festivals is tremendously gratifying. The promotion of Irish talent in this huge and vital market can yield significant dividends in terms of enterprise, trade and investment."
For more information about SIFF visit www.siff.com and for the EXPO 2010 visit en.expo2010.cn
