Irish Abroad: Room and Brooklyn to feature at 2015 Savannah Film Festival

Fresh from its win at the Toronto International Film Festival, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room has lined up another festival appearance in North America. This time it will appear at the 2015 Savannah Film Festival, which takes place from October 24th to 31st.

Room will be joined at the festival by a host of other awards favourite including opening film Suffragette, directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron; Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light, from director Marc Abraham; Krisha, from director Trey Edward Shults, the Maggie Smith starring The Lady in the Van, from director Nicholas Hytner; Mia Madre, from director Nanni Moretti; the heartwarming Miss You Already, from director Catherine Hardwicke; Hungary’s foreign language hopeful Son of Saul, from director László Nemes; Touched With Fire, from director Paul Dali; Mary Mapes biopic Truth, from director James Vanderbilt; the eagerly anticipated Youth, from director Paolo Sorrentino; and finally fellow Irish film Brooklyn, from director John Crowley.

room_posterRoom 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). Also joining the cast are 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 29th.

brooklyn_posterBrooklyn 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.