Top novelist to appear at Foyle Film Festival

A Belfast novelist who scooped an award for his first venture into movie-making has been lined up for an appearance at the Foyle Film Festival.

Bernard MacLaverty, who captured a Scottish Bafta award for his short film The Bye Child, will host a workshop at the festival on adapting the written word for the big screen.

Mr MacLaverty won the Best New Director award at a ceremony in Glasgow on Sunday night.

The festival gets underway tomorrow night with a screening of a new Richard Loncraine film, My House in Umbria, starring Maggie Smith, Ronnie Barker, Timothy Spall and Oscar-winner Chris Cooper.

The film is an adaptation of a novel by acclaimed Irish writer William Trevor.

Other movies which are being screened during the festival include the new John Travolta firefighters epic Ladder 49, cult director Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes with Bill Murray and acclaimed Irish films Adam and Paul and Timbuktu.

Bernard MacLaverty will appear at the festival on November 26 with a workshop at the Verbal Arts Centre.

The north Belfast writer has had two novels adapted for the big screen: Lamb, starring Liam Neeson, and Cal, which featured Helen Mirren and John Lynch.