Festival: Jameson Dublin International Film Festival announces final additions

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival has announced two additions to this year’s programme. French Auteur Laurent Cantet will attend the Festival for his new film Return to Ithaca and will also be the recipient of this year’s third Volta award. Alongside this news the Festival are honored to present Iris, one of the last films from renowned documentary filmmaker, Albert Maysles.

Laurent Cantet is one of French cinema’s refined filmmakers, a standard bearer for the national cinematic gene with his Palme d’Or winning and Academy Award nominated The Class and César awards for Resources Humaines, 7 Days in Havana and Foxfire. The Festival will screen Return to Ithaca on Friday the 27th of March at the Screen Cinema.

The Festival will also screen Albert Maysles’ final film Iris which follows the 93-year-old Iris Apfel, a staple of the New York fashion scene famous for her quick wit and flamboyant style.

Maysles sadly passed away on 5th March this year. Along with his brother David, he was a pioneer of Direct cinema and together they paved the way for “fly on the wall” documentary filmmaking, allowing the story to unfold naturally, without interview, narration or script. Maysles created some of the most groundbreaking documentaries including Salesman, the Beatles film What’s Happening, the infamous Rolling Stones film Gimme Shelter, Meet Marlon Brando, When We Were Kings, and Grey Gardens.

Grainne Humphreys, Festival Director, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival says: [quote]It is representative of the spectrum of world cinema celebrated at the 2015 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival that we can announce the dazzling, diverse recipients of our Volta Festival Tribute Awards. This year – we will recognise the contribution made by director and actor Kenneth Branagh, director Laurent Cantet and Hollywood icon Julie Andrews. Three very different artists whose work is linked by passion and curiosity, whose ambition has created an indelible impression on world cinema.

The Festival will also pay tribute to the late documentary legend Albert Maysles with a very special screening of his last film Iris. This wonderful film pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades.[/quote]

Another highlight this week at the Festival is Kenneth Branagh’s magical fairytale adaptation Cinderella which will screen this Saturday at the Savoy cinema at 6.30pm, Branagh will be in attendance for the screening for a special Q&A afterwards. Also on this Saturday at 1.30pm in the Savoy is Stanley Kubrick’s epic film Barry Lyndon with star Ryan O’Neal and producer Jan Harlan in attendance. Tickets are still available for these films at www.jdiff.com or through the box office on 13 Lower Ormond Quay. Limited tickets are available for Julie Andrews Public Interview in the Bord Gáis Theatre for the closing Sunday.

Plenty of other screenings and exciting events are taking places in the next few days. Fidelio, Alice’s Journey also screens on Monday 23rd March with director Lucie Borleteau in attendance. This French film focuses on a sexually confident young engineer who discovers the captain of the container ship she is working on is her jilted ex-boyfriend and is on in Screen 2. Eden a beautiful French film of a struggling garage DJ as he navigates two decades in the French club scene, the film will be showing on Thursday March 26th in Cineworld.

The 13th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival will take place from the 19th – 29th March 2015. The full programme is now available to view from the festival website www.jdiff.com.

The Festival is supported by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, The Irish Film Board, Jameson, The Irish Times, Entertainment.ie, RTE Radio One, Toyota, The Merrion Hotel, Wells Fargo, Cineworld, The Church and Windmill Lane.