Irish Movies Hit US Festival Screens

Irish movies are being screened in the USA next month at a prestigious festival that will screen in Washington D.C from the 2nd-11th December.
A host of Irish Film Board-funded features, documentaries, animations and short films including the Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells directed by Tomm Moore, Ken Wardop's critically acclaimed His & Hers, Paul Fraser's directorial debut My Brothers and Ian Fitzgibbon's comedy thriller Perrier's Bounty to name but a few, will be screening at the Capital Irish Film Festival.
In 2005 Solas Nua, a Washington DC-based arts organisation dedicated to promoting contemporary Irish arts, produced its first annual Irish Film Festival, Amharc Eile, which featured the work of over 50 female directors working in Irish cinema.
Solas Nua continued with themed festivals in 2006 and 2007 before adopting the name of the Capital Irish Film Festival in 2008 so that they could embrace a larger percentage of filmmakers on a yearly basis. Although young, the Capital Irish Film Festival has now become the largest Irish film festival in the US, celebrating the best of new Irish features, documentaries, shorts and animation, including Irish language films.
The Festival will be partnering with Darklight to showcase the unique Darklight creativity to American audiences and programming will include a series of films curated by Darklight Festival Director, Nicky Gogan.
Selected to open the festival is My Brothers, which was written by Will Collins and was also selected to open the Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year.
Other screenings will include the US premiere of Savage, Brendan Muldowney's exploration of violence and masculinity which is just fresh from its successful Irish cinema release and Snap, the complex debut feature film from writer and director Carmel Winters.
Also included in the line-up is Zonad, the quirky sci-fi comedy co-written by John Carney and Marian Quinn's sweet coming-of-age story 32A.
The critically acclaimed documentary Pyjama Girls, directed by Maya Derrington, and Mark O'Connors Between The Canals which follows three small time Dublin criminals are both set to have their US premieres at the festival.
The shorts programme includes the Oscar-nominated New Boy which was directed by Steph Green, the Bollywood short Moore Street Masala, directed by David O' Sullivan, Bono & My Ex, directed by Ross Whittaker and the Irish-language short Nollaig Shona, directed by Orla Murphy as well as a host of other short gems.
This year's Festival will run over 10 days from December 2nd and will screen over 30 films at the E-Street Cinema and Goethe Institute venues in downtown Washington DC.
(BmcC/GK)