Foyle Film Festival

20 years of the Foyle Film Festival

The 20th Foyle Film Festival in association with Stella Artois will take place between Friday 23 November 2007 –and Saturday 1 December 2007 at the newly refurbished Omniplex Cinema, the intimate Nerve Centre Cinema and return to its roots to use the beautiful little cinema at St Columbs Theatre.

20 years on from its first tentative steps, The Foyle Film Festival remains a strong mix of screenings and premieres, events, educational screenings, outreach activity, and workshops. “For the film festival to have reached its twentieth year is a remarkable achievement, and a great reflection on all the staff who have worked on the festival over the years. The Nerve Centre is proud to thank everyone involved and all our partners and we look forward to our fortieth anniversary” Pearse Moore CEO Nerve Centre
Highlights for this year’s festival are;

The Irish and UK Premiere of opening film Talk to Me starring Don Cheadle and Martin Sheen in the true life story of Washington Radio DJ and community activist "Petey" Greene, XXY, Macbeth and Take starring Minnie Driver and closing film The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon) winner of Best Director and the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Derry born Writer/Director Tom Collins will also host the Northern Ireland premiere of his Oscar short listed bilingual feature Kings starring Colm Meaney and Donal O’Kelly.

Music proves to be a very strong theme in this years Festival, with producers and directors who have worked with everyone from the Clash to the Sex Pistols, and from ABC to U2 and the Rolling Stones, Julien Temple, (who incidentally shot the video for my perfect cousin...) will be presenting his new movie the “Joe Strummer, the future is unwritten”.

Julien will discuss the movie and how he formed a close personal friendship over the last years of Joe's life, Julien’s film is a celebration of Joe Strummer - before, during and after the Clash.

Add to that screenings of CONTROL: a profile of Ian Curtis the enigmatic singer of Joy Division, ONCE starring Glen Hansard of the Frames and Winner of the World Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and gathering brilliant reviews across the globe, plus the glorious Edith Piath feature La En Vie Rose, Elvis: That’s The Way It Is the original documentary on a new 35mm print, and Kurt Cobain: About a Son. And music becomes the core of the Festival, especially as Duke Special, the Proclaimers and the Rumble Strips will all put in live shows during the week.

No stranger to music either is BAFTA winning producer Andrew Eaton, whose’ impressive body of film ('A Mighty Heart', 'The Road To Guantanamo', 'Snow Cake', 'A Cock And Bull Story', '9 Songs', 'Code 45', 'Heartlands', '24 Hour Party People', 'With Or Without You’) makes him one of the most important film producers in the UK today. Andrew will discuss his work during a question and answer session and in particular how digital film making has shaped his recent productions.

Michael Hamlyn, producer of “The Proposition, and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”,U2’s “Rattle and Hum” will also be on hand during the festival, Michael has worked with U2, and the Rolling Stones and is currently staging a musical version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in Australia that is smashing box office records.

Local man Danny Patrick who is to start directing his new £4million feature film in Derry soon will be screening a redux version of “Malicious Intent” at the festival. Whilst Wille Doherty, recently returned from the Venice biennale, will discuss how film influences his art.
Competition

Foyle Film Festival also has a competitive edge to it with The Stella Artois Film Awards now a route to the Oscars, and the Annual British Independent
Film Awards.

“Stella Artois is proud to once again be supporting the Foyle Film Festival. As a premium lager rich in heritage and history, Stella Artois congratulates the team at the Foyle Festival on their 20th anniversary. This year’s festival promises to provide film goers with an excellent array of quality films to view. Congratulations to all The Stella Artois Film Award nominees, we hope that some of them can emulate previous winners and go on to achieve international recognition and success.” Henrietta Farrell, Senior Sponsorship Manager at Stella Artois

The festival receives over 1,500 entries from around the globe for the competition which ensures that the best of short films and animation are screened. This year the award winners will be announced at the closing film on Saturday 1 December and may follow previous winners that have gone on to win Academy Awards such as Six Shooter, Harvey Crumpet and Chubb Chubbs from Pixar.
Workshops

A host of workshops will include director Nick Watts in a pre festival screening and question and answer session of his film Human Footprint, and during the week Workshops on “How to Pitch Your Film” by Euroscript, a Casting directing master class with Jesse Malone and Talent NI host a 1 day workshop on writing for the web.

The Festival Programme will be available from Friday the 2nd of November, from the Nerve Centre, Magazine Street, the Omniplex cinema, Strand Rd and the Orchard cinema, Orchard Street, and in many distribution points around the city and beyond.

Further information on the Festival is available online from www.foylefilmfestival.org Bookings and additional information on screenings and workshops are available from The Film Festival Office 02871260562, The Omniplex 0287137 3900 and the Orchard Cinema 02871264481