Festival: Silk Road Film Festival comes to Dublin, March 18-22

From March 18th to 22nd, the Silk Road Film Festival comes back to Dublin for the third time, offering a diverse array of Asian, Arab, Persian, Middle Eastern, African, Mediterranean and European cinema.

Inspired to forge connections between cultures and facilitate international contact between filmmakers, the Festival’s directors (and also filmmakers), Carla Mooney, Steinar Oli Jonsson, Delwyn Mooney have founded the Silk Road Film Festival, striving to incite fruitful collaborations at the intersection of cinema, arts and business.

The Silk Road Film Festival welcomes productions from regions which were once part of the historical network of ancient trade routes of the great Silk Road. The 2015 edition will showcase a rich diversity of features, documentaries, animations, short films and student films. In addition to the Offline program, the organisers will introduce the Silk Road Film Festival Online where viewers from across the world can watch exclusive films, documentaries and animations from the official selection during the Festival.

Apart from film screenings, the Silk Road Film Festival features premieres, exhibitions including the Silk Road Photo Exhibition, talks with industry guests and masterclasses.

For this year, the Festival directors are excited to announce the participation of the three time Oscar winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, and The Last Emperor). He will be presented with a lifetime achievement award during the opening night of the Festival at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke. Vittorio Storaro will hold a masterclass on the art of cinematography, discussing films from Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Warren Beatty and Carlos Saura. The masterclass will be held on the 20th March, 7.15pm in the Edmund Burke Theatre at Trinity College Dublin and is supported by Screen Training Ireland and Trinity College Dublin.

Besides creating a platform for international filmmakers to network and promote their work, the Festival’s directors aspire to give student filmmakers an opportunity to showcase their work on an international scale and have thus established a student filmmaking competition as part of Film Festivals Cinergy. This is a union of film festivals around the world, aiming to promote talents in filmmaking and to foster cross-cultural collaboration. Sponsored by Production Minds and the Sports & Cultural Council for the City of Dublin, two students from the Irish School of Animation and Film at Ballyfermot College of Further Education won a prize at Silk Road Film Festival 2014 which allowed them to enter their films into the festival and travel to Notre Dame University International Film Festival, Lebanon in November 2014.

The Silk Road Film Festival is opening its third edition with a new vision – the illustrator Julianna Szabo from Hungary has hand crafted 3D paper letters of the Silk Road Film Festival initials, representing the countries along the road.

Organisers have reduced down over 500 submission from over 80 countries to 145,  including features, animations, documentaries, shorts, and student films from 70 countries.

Silk Road Film Festival 2015 is supported by Turkish Airlines, Screen Training Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, Filmsaz Film School Iran, Haghighi Persian Carpets, Gudwrk Agency and Dublin City Council. Food sponsors include Silk Road Cafe, Banyi Japanese Dining and drink sponsor Tiger Beer.

Venues include: Filmbase, Edmund Burke Theatre-Trinity College Dublin, The Hub-Trinity College Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Tower Records, 4 Dame Lane, The Sugar Club and Generator Hostel.

For detailed information on participating countries, film selection & events throughout the Festival visit http://silkroadfilmfestival.com/.

Tickets can be purchased online through the festival website, or at the individual venues.