Cork Film Festival programme unveiled as event marks 70 years
Gabriel Byrne will be in Cork next month for the city's film festival. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer /Getty)
As the programme for the 70th Cork International Film Festival was launched on Wednesday evening, event patron David Puttnam underlined the achievement of reaching such a milestone. The first incarnation of the festival occurred in 1956, as the famed West Cork-based producer mentions in his programme notes, “five years before the launch of RTÉ television, 20 years before the launch of the VHS machine, and 51 years before Steve Jobs presented the iPhone to the world”.
It is indeed a changed world since the festival was spawned from the An Tóstal cultural events of the mid-1950s. A flick through the inaugural programme reveals advertisements for major Cork employers Fords and Dunlops, steam-packet boats bound for the UK, and invocations to try the ‘smooth smoking’ of Sweet Afton cigarettes.
Not surprisingly, given such a significant anniversary for Ireland’s oldest film festival, there were plenty references to past history at the launch event at Cork City Hall. It’s also somewhat fitting that the opening film this year should be based on one of the most significant events for the nation in the 21st century.
delves into the falling-out before the 2002 World Cup between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy, with Éanna Hardwicke and Steve Coogan starring as the warring duo in a film that will have its Irish premiere in Cork.
Other national premieres at the Cork festival also feature recent events of more serious note, with the screening at the Everyman of The docudrama uses real on-the-scene recordings as it follows the last moments in the life of a five-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza last year as she pleads for help from emergency services while Israeli soldiers continue to fire on her. The powerful film received a 23-minute ovation following its screening at the Venice Film Festival in September.
As well as the Keano contribution, Cork also gets other moments on its home-ground screens, not least with newly restored footage of the city that was filmed during the 1965 festival. The music-loving kids of the Kabin in Knocknaheeny also feature in a documentary by Brendan Canty, the same director whose recent feature Christy also included the young rappers.
Other highlights unveiled by programme director Aurélie Godet include Bradley Cooper’s latest offering, and three of the big winners from the Cannes festival: Iranian film (Yek tasadof-e sadeh), 1970s Brazil-set (O Agente Secreto), and Norwegian family drama (Affeksjonsverdi). Andrew Scott and Ethan Hawke star in Richard Linklater’s new film from Irish production company Wild Atlantic Pictures.
Well-known film figures coming to Cork for the festival include Gabriel Byrne - in town to discuss his early thriller (1974) – while director John Boorman will be presented with the ‘Disruptor Award’ by Cherie Lunghi, the English actress who starred in his 1981 fantasy
- Cork International Film Festival takes place November 6-16. For details and tickets, see corkfilmfest.org
