Clooney lights up festival screen as Cork set for movie magic
The week-long festival will screen over 300 films before closing next Sunday with The Silence of Lorna which is directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne.
Festival highlights include Hunger which won the Camera d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was written by Enda Walsh.
It tells the story of Bobby Sands, focusing on his final days of his hunger strike at the Maze Prison in 1981.
Well-known to Irish audiences as a panellist on Have I got News for You, British comedian Paul Merton will attend the festival for the screening of his show Silent Clowns which combines memorable moments from the pre-talkie era with his commentary.
Further gems include Goodbye Solo which tells the story of a young Senegalese taxi driver who is hired by a stoic 70 year old man to help him commit suicide and Brideshead Revisited which is Julian Jarrold’s latest feature.
The festival, which has the Irish Examiner among its media sponsors, will pay tribute to renowned British filmmaker Terence Davies.
Davies will attend the festival for the screening of Of Time and the City, a film which was highly acclaimed at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Peter Greenaway will give the inaugural lecture in a series to commemorate the passing of a former festival director, Donal Sheehan, and will also present his latest feature film Nightwatching.
The festival will also pay tribute to Robbie Ryan one of Ireland’s leading cinematographers.
Leading the way in the international documentaries is Heavy Load a film about an English punk band made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities.
Remembering the Children deals with the fate of Jewish children under the Vichy regime in France while Blast is about an international team of astrophysicists who travel from the Artic to the Antarctic.
An Irish documentary of note is Seo Man which is an honest and affectionate profile of Niall Toibin.
The Cork festival is internationally recognised as a leading showcase for the short film format and will screen several programme of shorts which will showcase local, national and international shorts.
Michael Barry of Barry & Fitzwilliam, distributors of Corona Extra said he is particularly pleased to see Mexican short films are being screened.
A further element of the programme is a series of screenings which are specifically designed to suit all the family and will include a performance by Canadian Super 8 guru John Porter.
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