The Dingle International Film Festival kicks off this weekend and will play host to a line-up of 16 international features, 10 national features and 51 short films.
The annual festival will feature a number of Irish titles such as ‘The Shadows’ by Colin Downey, ‘Love Eternal’ by Brendan Muldowney and new independent film ‘Made in Belfast’ by Paul Kennedy, which recently signed a representation deal with The Little Film Company.
Ravi Kumar’s ‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’ will be the opening film on Friday, March 14th, with a reception by Dingle Distillery. It stars Martin Sheen (The Departed), Mischa Barton (The Sixth Sense), Karl Penn (House) and Rajpal Yadav (Chandni Bar). Inspired by real events, the film interweaves the stories of people in India and the US as they face dilemmas of life time in the months leading to the biggest Industrial disaster in human history that claimed 10,000 innocent lives within a few hours.
International films being showcased at the festival include David MacKenzie’s ‘Starred Up’ and ‘Locke’ by Steven Knight starring Tom Hardy. The latest from Jim Jarmusch ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and John Hurt will also screen as well as Laila Marrakchi’s ‘Rock the Casbah’.
One of the festival highlights will be Animation Dingle, a one-day gathering where top industry names will gather to celebrate Irish cartoon on Saturday, March 15th. Seven of the best animated shorts from Ireland and abroad will feature, including IFB Frameworks shorts ‘The Ledge End of Phil’, ‘The Missing Scarf’ and ‘Coda’.
A selection of new Irish shorts will be screened on Saturday, March 15th, in St. James’ Church. These include ‘Abacus’ by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan, ‘Lean On Me’ by Gavin Butler, ‘Safehouse’ by Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair, ‘Stolen’ by Yvonne Keane, ‘The Note’ by Ciarán Creagh, ‘The Hard Way’ by Imogen Murphy and ‘All Mortal Flesh’ by John Corcoran.
Other key events to look out for include; a lecture with documentary filmmaker Matthew Syrett on what makes an independent film successful; Oscar winner Cynthia Wade will present a screening of her films which will be followed by a discussion; founder Roger Law will present a 30th anniversary World Premiere of ‘Arena: What Ever Happened to Spitting Image?’; and the short film ‘The Irish Pub’, which will be introduced by 2-time Emmy Award winner Marc Flanagan. A gala auction with film merchandise from Michael Fassbender, Aidan Gillen, Jim Sheridan, Lenny Abrahamson, Richie Baneham, Tomm Moore will also take place. The festival's closing film will be ‘We Are the Best’ by Lukas Moodysson.
The film festival will run from March 14th – 17th and tickets for each event can be booked here
Read more about the upcoming Dingle International Film Festival here
