Irish Abroad: Horror short Ghost Train enjoying great international success

Irish-Finnish co-production Ghost Train, from director Lee Cronin, has been making quite a splash on the international front, having featured at 30 international film festivals since its premiere at Clermont-Ferrand last February. With 10 more festivals lined up before the year’s end, 2014 has been quite the year for one of our favourite short films.

As well as its debut, notable other film festivals to date include the Film 4 Frightfest in London, Fantasia in Montreal, and the L.A. Shorts Festival and Palm Springs Short Festival in the US.

The film recently picked up an audience award at Court Métrange Fantasic Film Festival in France, and has been nominated for the Méliès D’argent in Trieste Science+Fiction. The film has also received 6 nominations at Molins de Rei Horror Film Festival in Spain including Best Film, Cast, Visual Effects. The festival is the oldest in Europe solely dedicated to horror.

Ghost Train will receive its Asian Premiere at the Asiana International Short Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea in two weeks time, were it features in competition for the AISFF Rock Award for Outstanding Genre Film. The film is the only Irish competitor, having been selected as one of the 57 to screen from almost 4,200 entries from around the globe. Culture Ireland and the festival organisers have arranged for Cronin to present the film, in person, at the festival.

Ghost Train will also screen across Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Halloween night, as well as featuring in official competition at Show me Shorts in New Zealand in November. This will see the film tour around New Zealand for 2 weeks.

Irish audiences were treated to a viewing as part of the IFI Horrorthon Short Film Showcase last weekend. Hopefully the film will screen again soon in its native land.