Murphy named on adjudication panel for Kerry Film Festival

ACTOR Cillian Murphy will be among the judges for a short film competition as plans are finalised for the Kerry Film Festival.

He is among a number of international celebrities appearing at the event, which runs from October 29 to November 5. The Cork- born actor appears alongside Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in the upcoming thriller In Time.

He will represent Irish film talent on the adjudication panel, which also includes animator Norton Virgien of Brown Bag Films and Australian film-maker Geoffrey Smith, whose documentary The English Surgeon won an Emmy award.

Paul Greengrass, director of the Bourne action series, The Green Zone and United 93, will also take part in judging the short films.

“We are delighted and honoured to announce that such an illustrious group of adjudicators have agreed to share their wealth of experience with us,” said festival director Sarah Smyth.

“They will certainly have their work cut out with the quality and sheer number of entries that we have received this year.”

This is the 12th festival and the number of entries has increased year-on-year, with more than 500 films submitted in total. The festival also presents a Children’s Audience Award and the John Moore Audience Award, sponsored by the Irish-born director who will shortly helm the latest in the blockbuster Die Hard series.

Kerry Film Festival makes partnerships with film festivals across the world to find outlets for emerging Irish film-makers and earlier this year celebrated the inclusion of six of last year’s winning short films at London’s Rushes Soho Shorts Festival. “We’re constantly pushing for our winning directors’ work to be screened at as many international film festivals as possible,” said KFF director Jason O’Mahony. “While we’ve always been committed to bringing film and film-makers to Kerry, we’re equally enthusiastic about bringing the fantastic short films that screen here to as wide an audience as possible.”