Irish films to premiere at London

Two Irish films - including Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto - starring a host of top actors are set to premiere on the world stage at a major UK festival, it was confirmed today.

Two Irish films starring a host of top actors are set to premiere on the world stage at a major UK festival, it was confirmed today.

Neil Jordan’s ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ and Stephen Bradley’s ‘Boy Eats Girl’, starring pop star Samantha Mumba, will screen at the three-day London UK Film Focus (LUFF) event next month.

Jordan’s film – which features Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea and Brendan Gleeson – was shot on location in Kilkenny, Glenavy and Belfast last year.

The film from the Oscar-winning director is based on the book ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ which follows Patrick Braden, who is the product of an illicit affair between the village priest and his teenage housekeeper.

Braden, played by Cillian Murphy, leaves the fictional town of Tyreelin in Ireland to become a transvestite cabaret singer in 1970s London.

The dark comic horror picture, Boy Eats Girl, was shot in Dublin and the Isle of Man last summer and features Mumba, who previously starred in The Time Machine, in the lead role.

In 2004, Paddy Breathnach’s acclaimed film ‘Man About Dog’ received its premiere at the event.

As the three-day event kicks off on June 27 over 140 international buyers are expected to attend.

Meanwhile, Irish writers Brian O’Malley and Terry McMahon earlier this week scooped the acclaimed Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with their screenplay ‘Sisk’.

The pair’s script deals with the underground world in Dublin as an ex-gangster returns to Dublin only to find himself caught in a battle between Irish criminals and the Chinese mafia.

Ted Hartley, RKO Pictures chairman, who founded the award, said the screenplay was a skilfully written piece” and “hoped that he would see the finished film in cinemas around the world soon”.

The award for ’American-style’ scripts carries a €10,000 cash prize and the writers will be honoured at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles on June 23.