| Belfast Film Festival | |
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2010 logo |
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| Opening film | 31 March |
| Closing film | 14 April |
| Location | Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
| Founded | 1994 as West Belfast Film Festival by Laurence McKeown and Féile an Phobail |
| Language | English, Irish, mixed |
| Official website | |
Founded in 1995 by author Laurence McKeown, in its early stages of development the West Belfast Film Festival was part of Féile an Phobail. In its third and fourth year, it was autonomous and under the stewardship of Michele Devlin and Laurence McKeown, the Film Festival ran as a citywide event and became the Belfast Film Festival in the year 2000. 2011 will see the eleventh festival roll out across the city. The Festival’s activities are entertaining and provocative, and in many instances provide an important platform for debate across the religious, social and cultural divides in Northern Ireland. The presentation of innovative ways to screen film is one of the festival’s specialities; films can be viewed on a boat in the River Lagan, with live piano accompaniment in St Anne’s Cathedral, collaborating with local talent such as Duke Special and David Holmes on audio visual performances and profiling unique architectural sites such as a screening of an episode of the TV series The Prisoner in Church of Christ Scientist, Church in Belfast. The Festival promotes film education and practical filmmaking skills and has attracted film industry guests such as Seamus Mc Garvey, Brendan Gunn and John Lynch. THe Festival has a remit to showcase local talent and the best in new International cinema. Belfast Film Festival initiated a documentary film competition called The Maysles Brothers Award in 2006 to celebrate the best work in the medium.
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Co-founded in the mid-1990s by author Laurence McKeown,[1] it was originally called the West Belfast Film Festival and was run by Féile an Phobail. The festival became a citywide event in 2000.
Two weeks after the 2004 event, the festivals offices in Donegall Street's historic North Street Arcade were decimated by fire. Despite losing their base, entire history and all their records the festival recovered and was able to stage the event again in 2005. The 2005 festival was held from 7 April to 16 April. Opened by local actor Stephen Rea, the festival featured screenings including Bullet Boy, Les Choristes and Palindromes. Jonathan Caouette hosted a workshop about the making of his film Tarnation, which was the festivals closing night screening. A strong emphasis is put on showcasing the work of local film makers. Later in 2005 the festival hosted two drive-in cinema nights as part of the Belfast Festival at Queens.
The 2006 festival featured premieres of locally made features GuinnessSize Me, Wilderness and The Secret Life of Words. The festival also featured the inaugural Maysles Brothers award for best documentary feature. The award was won by Kim Longinotto. In September 2006 the Festival organised an event called 'The Hills are alive', an outdoor film screening at Belfast Castle on Cavehill.
The 7th Belfast Film Festival opened on 23 March 2007 with the premiere of Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute. Guests included Oscar winning actress Julie Christie presenting her new film Away From Her. Other festival guests included Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and screenwriter Jimmy McGovern.
The 8th Belfast Film Festival took place on 10–19 April 2008, and hosted over 120 screenings, workshops, discussions, masterclasses and special events in a 10 day period. The festival also held an international documentary competition - Maysles Brothers Documentary Award and a national short film competition - Jameson Short Film Competition in association with Kodak.
The festival takes places in various venues around the city including the Strand Cinema, the Waterfront Hall, the Culturlann Centre, the John Hewitt Bar, Queen's Film Theatre and the Black Box. For six years the festival has hosted the Belfast World Pong Championships.
The 2009 Jameson Belfast Film Festival took place from 26 March to 4 April and featured the Irish premieres of movies including Salvador Dalí biopic Little Ashes and local feature film Cherrybomb, featuring Harry Potter star Rupert Grint.[2]
Festival Director: Michele Devlin
Programmer: Stephen Hackett
Maysles Brothers Documentary Competition Curator: Cian Smyth
Festival Manager: Mave Dempster
Board of Directors: Brian Henry Martin (Chairman),Mark Cousins, Laurence McKeown, Louise O'Meara, Kevin Jackson, William Crawley
Patrons: Terry George, David Holmes, Pat Murphy
The festival is sponsored by the Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland Screen and the department for Social Development .
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