Kevin de la Isla O Neill wins Gold Remi Award at Worldfest-Houston, Colin Farrell to be given the Navigator Award at Maui Film Festival and the Early Bird deadline is approaching for the OFFline Film Festival.
Award for Kevin de la Isla O Neill at Houston
Director Kevin de la Isla O’Neill won the Gold Remi Award for Best First Feature Film last Sunday the 19th of April 2015 at the 48th Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival in Houston, Texas.
The award was given for Kevin de la Isla O'Neill's innovative feature film, ‘The Hit Producer’, which is currently on the festival circuit seeking a distributor to bring it to an international audience.
Last month, the film was one of the 22 feature films selected for competition (out of over 1500 submissions) at the 30th Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico.
After successfully raising the budget via a crowdfunding initiative, there has been a lot of social media support for the film from notable industry names such as, Alvaro Rodriguez (writer 'Machete', 'From Dusk Til Dawn' series), Fede Alvarez (director, 'Evil Dead') and Guillermo Arriaga (Oscar nominated writer of 'Babel' and '21 Grams'). The film stars actress, model and TV presenter Michelle Doherty.
There will also be a special screening of ‘The Hit Producer’ at this year’s Fastnet Short Film Festival in Schull on Friday the 22nd of May. There will be a Post screening Q&A with director and producer Kevin de la Isla O’Neill hosted by producer Hilary Durman where they will discuss ‘How to produce a feature on a budget of €18,000’.
Colin Farrell to be given Navigator Award at Maui Film Festival
Irish actor Colin Farrell will be given the Navigator Award at the 16th annual Maui Film Festival, which runs June 3-7.
Past Maui honourees include Tim Burton, Jessica Chastain, Clint Eastwood, Andrew Garfield, Jake Gyllenhaal and Lupita Nyong’o.
The fest takes place at the Wailea Resort, and the Celestial Cinema will host the event saluting Farrell on June 4, Variety reports. The Navigator Award honours a film artist for carving a path of distinction while maintaining a commitment to excellence, according to the festival.
Festival Director Barry Rivers said: ‘Colin Farrell is a chameleon who constantly creates one-of-a-kind characters. In short, Colin is a cinematic force of nature.’
Farrell will next be seen in the HBO drama ‘True Detective’ - which will premiere on Sky Atlantic in June – starring opposite Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughan. He also has a lead role in the independent film ‘The Lobster’, which is an Irish co-production and will be screening in competition at Cannes next month.
Early Bird deadline approaching for the OFFline Film Festival
There’s less than a week to go to get your short film submitted in time to avail of the early bird discount for the OFFline Film Festival.
The festival now in its sixth year has been showing quality Irish and International shorts and features since its inception. A new initiative introduced last year should be of huge interest to Irish filmmakers. The Best Irish Short at OFFline is automatically guaranteed a distribution deal to over 80 official film clubs throughout Ireland.
Thanks to this deal with access>CINEMA, the winning short will be on its way to a whole new audience. Filmmakers whose films are chosen for OFFline are invited as guests to the festival where networking is a huge part of the activities.
For more information, go to http://www.offlinefilmfestival.com/#!shorts-competition-2014/c3qn.