The Cork Film Festival will launch its 2016 programme today, with this year’s event showcasing home-grown talent alongside international features, and a strong focus on documentary film. Ireland’s oldest film festival takes place 11-20 November and will screen more than 70 feature films, including Kelly Reichardt’s Montana drama Certain Women which won the best picture prize at the recent London Film Festival. There are 52 documentary films, over 100 shorts, and 55 countries represented throughout the programme. For over 80% of the movies featured, this will be the only chance to see them on a big screen in Cork.
Over 15,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which generates €2.5 million in revenue locally.
Opening night of the 2016 refocused Cork Film Festival features the stunning new documentary, Dancer, profiling bad-boy ballet star Sergei Polunin, directed by Academy Awards® nominee Steven Cantor, while the acclaimed A United Kingdom, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, will close the 61st Cork Film Festival. For full details of the programme and tickets visit corkfilmfest.org.
Continuing to nurture home-grown talent, the festival will screen 39 Irish short films, with over a quarter from Cork. Submissions this year, both nationally and internationally, exceeded 1,500 and the winner of the Grand Prix Irish Short, presented by RTÉ Cork, and the winner of the Grand Prix International, will automatically qualify for the Academy Awards® longlist.
Cork Film Festival is proudly supported by principal funder the Arts Council, along with Cork City Council, the Irish Film Board, Fáilte Ireland, the Broadcasting Authority Ireland, Screen Training Ireland and Culture Ireland. RTÉ continues to work with the Festival as principal partner, joined by generous sponsorship from Ford Ireland, The River Lee hotel, Tiger Beer, and VTSL Ireland. Media partners are RTÉ Supporting the Arts, the Irish Examiner, and Red FM.
Speaking ahead of the launch at The River Lee, Festival Creative Director James Mullighan said:
Films have the ability to entertain, challenge, exhilarate, and surprise, and this year’s Cork Film Festival is encouraging audiences to regard features and documentaries as equally valid films. We are delighted to announce the addition of Doc Day, Ireland’s premier documentary industry event, presented in partnership with the Irish Film Board and Screen Training Ireland on 18 November. This flagship occasion at The River Lee brings together Irish and international industry leaders to explore the landscape in which projects are conceived, developed and distributed.
From a special presentation of one of the most widely discussed films of 2016, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, to the world premiere of the thoroughly engaging Irish surf documentary Between Land and Sea, the Festival accurately reflects the fantastic diversity of global, contemporary cinema.
Films will be screened at four locations across the city, The Everyman, Gate Cinema, Triskel Christchurch, and a special visual and audio experience, fLux, at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, with musical innovators, Eat My Noise.
This year will see an increased family programme, including two major films, Rock Dog and The Eagle Huntress. In deference to Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday and as a tribute to the late Gene Wilder, there will be screenings of the much loved Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Other highlights include Mumford and Sons’ new music documentary We Wrote This Yesterday at The Everyman on 19 November, hosted by Donal Gallagher, brother of music legend Rory Gallagher. Donal will be joined by special guests on the night.
Acclaimed screen star Fiona Shaw will attend the showing of the poignant Out of Innocence on 13 November at the Triskel Christchurch, based on the controversial events in Kerry in the 1980s which linked the secret birth of a stillborn baby and the brutal murder of another.
The Festival’s major Irish films include thriller I Am Not a Serial Killer at The Everyman on 17 November from Irish producer Nick Ryan (director, The Summit) and Cork native writer/director Billy O’Brien; along with Forever Pure on 18 November, a feature documentary about the most symbolic football club in Israel, Beitar Jerusalem.
On November 16, human rights activist Fr Peter McVerry will take part in a panel discussion with Fiona Dukelow of the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC after a screening of the RTÉ documentary Peter McVerry: The View from the Basement. The Cork Film Festival also welcomes the return of Illuminate, a series of film and discussion events, which use film to explore different aspects of mental health. This is presented in association with Arts+Minds and the HSE Cork Mental Health Services.
One of the award highlights will be the Ford-sponsored Award for Cinematic Documentary, with the films in competition including And We Were Young, LoveTrue, The Space In Between – Marina Abramović and Brazil, Tempestad, and Wolf and Sheep. Once again, the Audience Award will be presented by Festival partner, The River Lee.
Festival Producer Fiona Clark added:
We are hugely grateful to all our funders, sponsors, partners, patrons, friends, and colleagues who have enabled this year’s programme, and who continue to support this significant Festival. It is clear that there is huge respect and love for the Cork Film Festival, and we look forward to welcoming new and returning audiences, from home and abroad, to enjoy what promises to be a wonderfully rich, diverse and entertaining programme here in Cork city.
For full details of all films and bookings see corkfilmfest.org, call 021 427 1711, or visit the Cork Film Festival box office at 119 Patrick Street, Cork. Follow the festival on social media via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.