Belfast Film Festival

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Belfast Film Festival
Opening film3 November 2022
Closing film12 November 2022
LocationBelfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Founded1995
LanguageEnglish, Irish, mixed
Websitehttp://www.belfastfilmfestival.org

The Belfast Film Festival is Northern Ireland's film festival, attracting over 25,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1995, the festival has grown to include the Docs Ireland international documentary festival, as well as an Audience Development and Inclusion program.[1] The festival also sponsors year-round film screenings around Belfast.[2]

History[edit]

Belfast Film Festival's screening of Mad Max at T13

Founded in 1995 by writer Laurence McKeown, the festival began as a part of Féile an Phobail, and operated as the West Belfast Film Festival (WBFF) from 1995 to 2000. In its third and fourth year, WBFF ran as an independent event and included venues throughout the city. Under the stewardship of Michele Devlin and Laurence McKeown, it became the Belfast Film Festival in the year 2000 and ran as a citywide event, including venues in the North, South, East and West of Belfast.

During the 2004 event, the festival's offices in the Art Deco North Street Arcade were completely destroyed by fire. Despite losing their base and all their records, the festival recovered, relocated to Donegall St, and staged the event again the following year. The 2005 festival was launched by award-winning actor Stephen Rea.

The 2022 festival will see the launch of an International Competition for first or second features, with a total prize fund of £10,000 sponsored by a number of organizations, notably Yellow Moon, Greg Darby’s popular Northern post-production house. An international jury of filmmakers and industry professionals will award a prize of £7,000 to the director of the Best Film, alongside Jury Prizes for Outstanding Craft Contribution and Breakout Performance of £1,500 each.

Site-specific and Summer Program[edit]

Belfast Film Festival's screening of The Wicker Man at the Giant's Ring

The inclusion of people and the fabric of the city in the program is an important aspect of the BFF's work. In 2004 they hosted the first ever drive-in movie event in the city in Talbot St car park screening The Shining. They have screened films in used and disused swimming pools including Jaws and Session 9; on a boat in the River Lagan (Piranha); with live piano accompaniment in St Anne's Cathedral (16mm original version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and shown Carol Reed's Odd Man Out beside the Albert Clock, which featured heavily in the film. They have profiled unique architectural sites by hosting screenings inside the buildings, including the US political drama The West Wing at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Oh, Mr Porter! at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, The Warriors in a dystopian landscape beneath a city center motorway flyover, and Stanley Kubrick's cult sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey in the historic dry dock in the city's old shipyards where the RMS Titanic last sat on dry ground.

Music has also featured strongly in their programming; some highlights include the collaborations with local talent such as Duke Special and David Holmes on audio visual performances, hosting the band Goblin to perform a live score to Dawn of the Dead, Cercueil (Coffin) the fantastic French duo performing to David Lynch's Eraserhead and a synchronized swim team (Aquabatix) performing live in a pool to alongside a compilation of aquatic and swim themed films and music.

Together with Belfast One, Belfast Film Festival runs the annual Summer Cinema at Belfast City Hall, featuring eight outdoor films across a July weekend.

The Belfast Film Festival Board & Team[edit]

Director: Michele Devlin

Programmer (International): Jessica Kiang

Programmer (UK and Ireland): Rose Baker

Assistant Programmer/Print Transport: James Hall

Head of Marketing: Mary Lindsay

Audience Development and Inclusion: Sara Morrison

Festival Manager: Mal O'Hara

Box Office Manager: Simeon Costello

Board of directors: Marie Therese McGivern & Lisa Barros D'Sa (Co-Chair), Nisha Tandon, Mark Cousins, Laurence McKeown, Louise O'Meara, Kevin Jackson & Lucy Baxter.

Patrons: Terry George, David Holmes, Pat Murphy, William Crawley and Stephen Rea.

Belfast Film Festival Award Winners[edit]

Short Film Competition[edit]

Eoin with his award for Best Short Film at the 17th Belfast Film Festival
Year Film Title Director(s) Country
2022 Sour Milk Mark Keane
2022 Still Up There Joe Loftus
2021 Dear Eibhlin Laura Conlon 🇮🇪
2020 Ciúnas (Silence) (joint winner) Tristan Heanue 🇮🇪
2020 The Shift (joint winner) Evan Barry 🇮🇪
2019 Hold the Line Laura O'Shea and Karen Killeen 🇮🇪
2018 Good Girls Niamh McKeown 🇮🇪
2017 Incoming Call Eoin Cleland 🇮🇪
2016 Introducing Brian Nicolas Keogh 🇬🇧
2015 A Flash Niall Cutler 🇮🇪
2014 Rúbaí Louise Ní Fhiannachta 🇮🇪
2013 Toy Soldiers Mike Hayes 🇮🇪
2012 Exhale Mal Campbell 🇬🇧
2011 Even Gods Phil Harrison 🇬🇧
2010 Chronoscope Andrew Legge 🇮🇪
2009 Of Best Intentions Brian Durnin 🇮🇪
2008 The Sound of People Simon Fitzmaurice 🇮🇪
2007 The White Dress Vanessa Gildea 🇮🇪
2006 Testing Time, Teddy Boy Kevin McCann 🇮🇪
2005 Fluent Dysphasia Daniel O'Hara 🇮🇪
2004 Full Circle Simon Fitzmaurice 🇮🇪
2003 Suffering Gary Mitchell 🇬🇧

Maysles Brothers Documentary Competition (part of Docs Ireland international documentary festival since 2019)[edit]

Year Film Title Director(s) Country
2022 The Balcony Movie Pawel Łoziński 🇵🇱
2021 Writing with Fire Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas 🇮🇳
2020 Cancelled due to pandemic
2019 Island Steven Eastwood 🇬🇧
2018 Still Tomorrow Jian Fan 🇨🇳
2017 Hidden Photos Davide Grotta 🇮🇹🇰🇭
2016 Tchindas Marc Serena & Pablo García Pérez de Lara 🇪🇸🇨🇻
2015 Approaching the Elephant Amanda Wilder 🇺🇸
2014 Sepideh - Reaching for the Stars Berit Madsen 🇮🇷🇩🇰🇩🇪🇳🇴🇸🇪
2013 Bad Boy High Security Cell Janusz Mrozowski 🇵🇱🇫🇷
2012 The Tiniest Place (El lugar más pequeño) Tatiana Huezo Sánchez 🇲🇽
2011 Marwencol Jeff Malmberg 🇺🇸
2010 October Country Michael Palmieri & Donal Mosher 🇺🇸
2009 Presumed Guilty Roberto Hernández 🇲🇽
2008 End of the Rainbow Robert Nugent 🇫🇷🇦🇺
2007 Nömadak Tx Raúl de la Fuente 🇪🇸

Audience Award[edit]

Year Film Title Director(s) Country
2019 Heavy Trip Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio 🇫🇮
2018 The Divine Order Petra Biondina Volpe 🇨🇭
2017 A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove) Hannes Holm 🇸🇪
2016 Traders Rachael Moriarty & Peter Murphy 🇮🇪
2015 Timbuktu Abderrahmane Sissako 🇲🇷🇫🇷
2014 The Lunchbox (Dabba) Ritesh Batra 🇮🇳🇫🇷🇩🇪🇺🇸🇨🇦
2013 Much Ado About Nothing Joss Whedon 🇺🇸
2012 Good Vibrations Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn 🇬🇧🇮🇪
2011 Simple Simon (I rymden finns inga känslor) Andrea Ohman 🇸🇪
2010 Cup Cake Colin McIvor 🇬🇧
2009 Cherrybomb Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn 🇬🇧

Short Documentary Competition (part of Docs Ireland international documentary festival since 2019)[edit]

Year Film Title Director(s) Country
2022 Ireland's Last Matchmaker (joint winner) Sam Howard
2022 Mam's Old Chair (joint winner) Sheena Walsh
2021 How to Fall in Love in a Pandemic Michael-David McKernan
2020 Hydebank Ross McClean 🇮🇪
2019 Strong at the Broken Places Anna Rodgers 🇮🇪
2017 Raymond David Stephenson 🇮🇪
2017 Martin Donal Moloney 🇮🇪

Réalta Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cinema[edit]

Year Name Role(s)
2021 Bríd Brennan Actress
2019 Robert Carlyle Actor
2018 Ken Loach Director
2017 John Cusack Actor
2016 Terence Davies Writer/Director
2012 Stephen Rea Actor
2010 Ciarán Hinds Actor

Lifetime Achievement Award[edit]

Year Name Role(s)
2021 Roy and Noel Spence Filmmakers
2014 James Ellis Actor
2010 Haskell Wexler Cinematographer

Sponsorship[edit]

Key funders are NI Department for Communities, Arts Council NI, Film Hub NI, Yellow Moon, British Council, Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland Screen and the British Film Institute.

2013: Peroni & Selective Travel

2014: Peroni & O2 International Sim[3]

2015: O2 International Sim, DCAL and Tourism NI

2016: Peroni, Tourism NI and DCAL

2017: The Irish News, Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland

2018: Richer Sounds, Clayton Hotels

2021: Birra Moretti, Hastings Hotels

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Inclusion". Belfast Film Festival. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ^ Roy, David (15 July 2016). "Special event: Belfast Film Festival hosts outdoor screenings". The Irish News. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  3. ^ "Festival News". Belfastfilmfestival.org. Retrieved 14 August 2019.