Kissing Candice

Competition: Win tickets to Kissing Candice at the Dublin Feminist Film Festival

This summer’s Dublin Feminist Film Festival shows at Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema from Thursday, 22 to 24 August and takes a look through the lens at work by some of Ireland’s best female talent including Kirsten Sheridan, Aoife McArdle, Oonagh Kearney, Louise Bagnall, and Claire Dix.

To celebrate Scannain has a pair of tickets to give away to the screening of Aoife McArdle’s powerful debut Kissing Candice at 10:45pm on Friday, August 23rd.

Blending surreal ambiguity with biting social realism, Kissing Candice follows its titular protagonist, an epileptic teen who struggles with feelings of loneliness and isolation. When a handsome stranger aids her during one of her seizures, Candice’s world becomes an intriguing but sometimes unsettling blend of fantasy and escapism – often in ways that challenge viewers

To enter simply answer this simple question with your name and email address. Winners will be notified on Thursday ahead of the screening.

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Now six years in the running, the Festival has established firm roots in Dublin’s cultural calendar, shining a spotlight on dynamic, fresh and exciting female directors who are trail blazing the way for women in film, both at home and abroad. The festival  line-up includes films, documentaries and animation shorts by Irish women who bring intelligent, witty and provocative themes for your viewing pleasure.

The label ‘feminist film’ is simultaneously useful and problematic. To distinguish a film as ‘feminist’ may be off-putting for some cinema-goers and have an alienating effect, so there is possibly a need for discretion in terms of how the label is applied; however, until we see more films and narratives that represent the diversity of female experiences the term ‘feminist film’ does provide a useful way of giving visibility to films and filmmakers that are trying to challenge the dominant narratives and archetypes that typify Hollywood and other national cinemas.  

Despite a high-profile and highly active push to increase the number of films directed by women here, the number continues to hover around 20% in any given year. But even with growing vocal demands for inclusion and Screen Ireland’s important and admirable 2017 gender parity plan, 20% remains far too low a number.

A film’s narrative starts with a script, a producers vision to create and tell a story, which the director then delivers on.  Historically there has been an unconscious bias towards male directors in the film business.  Female directors and also producers can contribute massively by using film as a means of sharing their stories.  It’s about creating a culture where a female vision and talent can impact artistically to produce meaningful, engaging and diverse movies.

Aoife O’Toole – Dublin Feminist Film Festival

I think these days female directors tend to get more opportunity on the TV side of things rather than film. In terms of film, there needs to be a conscious effort to evolve the male bias.  Women as directors tend to be very collaborative, open to ideas and oddly that can be seen as a weakness, while male directors are sometimes seen as more tunnel-visioned.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag is a prime example of amazing writing which depicts raw vulnerability in a woman’s life that could only have been written by a woman. It’s a complete evolution or move away from the typical prescriptive genres of past years, allowing us into a complex emotive world of the human brain’s thought process.  Along with Sharon Horgan’s Catastrophe, this type of genre is so current and extremely popular.”

Kirsten Sheridan, Director – Disco Pigs

This year the festival highlights the incredible work across different genres and filmmaking formats. 

Bookings: www.lighthousecinema.ie