‘Small Change’, a short graduate film from IADT’s National Film School and David O’Reilly's animated short ‘The External World’ are two of 81 shorts chosen to screen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. They will show alongside Irish feature film ‘The Guard’ and feature doc ‘Knuckle’.
‘Small Change’, starring Nora Jane Noone (The Magdalene Sisters), is written and directed by Cathy Brady and will compete in the festival’s International Narrative Shorts category. It tells the bittersweet tale of a young single mother who becomes bored with routine. So much so that she becomes secretly addicted to slot machines. With Christmas looming, a desperate hope for a big win sees her life spiral out of control.
Produced by Tommy Fitzpatrick, the film recently featured at this years Galway Film Fleadh, and also at the Cork Film Festival, where its director, Cathy Brady, won the the Claire Lynch Award for Best First-Time Irish Director. Producer Tommy Fitzpatrick commented on the nomination saying: “Of the original 6400 applicants for the International Short Film section of Sundance, for ‘Small Change’ to be selected for the final programme says an awful lot about the quality of filmmaking talent emerging from both the NFS at IADT Dun Laoghaire, and the Irish film industry as a whole at this time.”
Sundance’s International Animated Shorts group features David O’Reilly’s ‘The External World’ which follows the story of a little boy learning to play the piano. It is directed by Irish born David who co-wrote it with Vernon Chatman (Jackass: The Movie) and co-produced it with Henning Kamm (Father, Son and Holy Cow). The music for the short is composed by Brian Meindersma (4 Elements). The short was recently chosen as the Venice Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
This year's international short films were selected from a record 3,014 submissions and include 38 films from 21 countries. Other Irish projects that have been selected to screen at next year’s festival including John Michael McDonagh’s ‘The Guard’ which will open the festival and is one of 16 features that will compete in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition and Ian Palmer’s ‘Knuckle’ which will face competition from 11 other feature documentaries in the category of World Cinema Documentary.
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival will take place in Utah from the 20th to the 30th January. For a full list of nominated titles visit www.sundance.org
