The Irish Film Festival Boston has been named as one of the '20 Coolest Film Festivals' in 2010 by MovieMaker, one of America's leading resources on the art and business of making movies and the world's most widely read independent movie magazine. Founded in 1999, the Irish Film Festival Boston is the largest event of its kind outside of Ireland.
The annual festival looks to celebrate the very best of Ireland and the Irish contribution to the big screen - past, present and future. MovieMaker listed the event in its special ’20 Coolest Film Festivals’ article alongside a comment stating that: "there is no better city to experience Ireland in America than Boston". The publication was established in New York in 1993 and currently enjoys a readership of over 160,000 people while their website receives more than one million visitors per year.
Over the years, Irish Film Festival Boston has presented a varied slate of films from both contemporary and classic Irish cinema. The festival’s audiences have enjoyed premieres of highly acclaimed films such as ‘In America’, ‘Intermission’ and ‘Bloody Sunday’. The festival has also played host to some of the greatest names in Irish cinema including Jim Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne, Brendan Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Fionnula Flannagan, John Boorman and Aidan Quinn. Last year's event saw hig profile guests such as Peter Flynn, Siobhan Fanning, Alan Gilsenan, Laura Way, Niall McKay, all pictured above with Dawn Morrissey.
The 12th Irish Film Festival Boston, supported by Culture Ireland, will take place at the Stuart Street Theater, Boston on March 24th and in the Somerville Theater from March 25th to March 27th 2011 while it's Bespoke film Market will run on March 25th and 26th in Boston. The festival’s co-director, Dawn Morrissey explained the introduction of the new film market, saying: “Having consulted with many filmmakers and distributors both sides of the pond, we decided to also host a "Bespoke film market" at the festival. Irish filmmakers will get matched with American distributors, who are interested in seeing their work. It allows both parties the opportunity to see how an American audience reacts to an Irish film- a test screening so to speak!"
