Irish Abroad: 4 films head to 23rd Hamptons International Film Festival, New York

The 23rd Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs from today (October 8th) until October 12th in the Hamptons New York, is set to feature 4 Irish films. Awards favourites Room and Brooklyn will be joined at the festival by the Oscar submitted Polish co-production 11 Minutes and Danish/Finish/Irish co-production The Visit.

Image from the movie "Room"Room sees writer Emma O’Donoghue adapt her own best-selling novel, which is told from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, who is being held captive in a small room along with his mother. To him the room is his world, but his mother knows different having been held there for 7 years.

The film stars Brie Larson (Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now), Jacob Tremblay (The Smurfs 2, Somnia), Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy, Nixon) and William H. Macy (Shameless, Magnolia). The film also features Sean Bridgers (Rectify), Tom McCamus (The Samaritan) and Megan Park (What If). Room is an Element Pictures and No Trace Camping production, in association with Telefilm Canada, Film4, and Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. It will be released in Irish cinemas on January 15th.

brooklyn_image-1Brooklyn is an adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel by the equally best-selling British author Nick Hornby. Set in the 1950s, the film sees a young woman move from a small town in Ireland to Brooklyn, where she has the opportunity for work, for a future and for love.

Intermission director Crowley has gathered an all-star Irish and British cast, that features Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters. Brooklyn is an Irish/British co-production from Wildgaze Films, Finola Dwyer Productions, Parallel Films and Item 7, with co-finance from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. It will be released in Irish cinemas on November 6th.

11 Minutes11 Minutes is backed by the Irish Film Board and Element Pictures, and stars Richard Dormer (Good Vibrations, ’71, Game of Thrones) in the lead role of a film director. It follows the same 11 minutes in the lives of several different characters; young and old, prosperous and destitute.

11 Minutes stars an ensemble of other Polish actors including Agata Buzek, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Mateusz Ko?ciukiewicz. It is produced by Ewa Piaskowska of Skopia Film and co-produced by Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney of Element Pictures. It has no Irish release date as of yet.

the-visit_image-2Directed by Michael Madsen, and co-produced by Venom Film with support from the Irish Film Board, The Visit is a creative documentary that poses the question, what would happen if we were to be visited by a being from another world. The film presents this hypothetical scenario to experts from around the world who have already dedicated their lives to preparing for such an event.

Earlier this year The Visit screened in the World Documentary Competition category at the Sundance Film Festival. It has no Irish release date as of yet.

The Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to celebrate Independent film—long, short, fiction and documentary—and to introduce a unique and varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to New York audiences. The festival has screened the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner in 6 of the last 7 years (including Birdman in 2014) and attracts over 25,000 visitors to theatres across the picturesque New York communities of East Hampton, Southampton, Montauk, and Sag Harbor.