Some call it the Irish Film Festival Boston (IFFB); others prefer the Boston Irish Film Festival (BIFF). Either way, next Thursday through Sunday, the 15th annual IFFB/BIFF will be showcasing and bestowing awards on the best of contemporary Irish movie-making at the Somerville Theatre in the heart of Davis Square.
As Variety recently noted, the Irish film industry “is now achieving a critical mass of film-making talent to match the kind of influence, disproportionate to its small size, that it has always enjoyed in the fields of literature and theatre.
Witness the fact that Irish films have won almost every major international prize, including Academy Awards, the Palm D’Or at Cannes, the Golden Bear in Berlin, and the Golden Lion in Venice.
Back here in Boston, the 2015 Festival hosts approximately 30 films, ranging from family-friendly animation to documentaries like the behind-the-scenes look at schlockmeister Roger Corman’s five years of making B-movies with Hollywood actors and an Irish crew entitled “It Came from Connemara!!” Programming includes Q&As and after-parties with nearly a dozen visiting Irish filmmakers. Though many of the pictures being shown have won numerous honors elsewhere, the Boston festival is recognizing these films further with its own awards.
On Thurs., March 19, Director Niall Heery will appear at the screening of his black comedy “Gold,” acclaimed as the 2015 Festival’s Best Feature and series opener, starring James Nesbitt, Mazie Williams and David Wilmot, along with the Oscar-nominated short film about two young brothers and their pet chickens, “Boogaloo and Graham,” the 2015 Festival Best Short.
Friday night (3/20) offers the US premiere of the 2015 Festival Director’s Choice Awardee, “One Million Dubliners.” Voted Best Irish Film in 2014 by The Irish Times, the film delves into the Glasnevin Cemetery, revealing how the business of death is often humorous and always affecting. Its tagline: “Every plot has a story… .” Both Director Aoife Kelleher and Producer Rachel Lysaght will be present. Paul Murphy’s “The Weather Report” opens the evening as the 2015 Festival Director’s Choice Short Film.
Saturday’s programming features the 2015 Festival Special Jury Prize award winning “An Bronntanas (The Gift),” Ireland’s entry to the foreign film category of the 2015 Oscars. Directed by Tom Collins, this contemporary thriller, set against the Connemara coastline, follows the dramatic lives of a local lifeboat crew. The story is told in Irish and English…and a little Polish. Actor Dara Devaney will be present at the screening. (BTW, Collins lives in Ros Muc, Galway, where Mayor Marty Walsh’s family still resides.)
Throughout the weekend a number of contemporary features, short films and documentaries screen, including “The Guarantee,” a based-on-fact feature that follows the Irish government’s decision to guarantee the entire domestic banking system in 2008. The movie makes its US premiere at the Festival along with the stellar documentaries “Blood Fruit” and “Mairead Farrell: An Unfinished Conversation.” The romantic comedy feature “Standby” unreels on Saturday evening.
Two short film programs and a free children’s program are featured on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. To wrap up the weekend, the documentary “Dolores Keane: A Storm in the Heart” screens on Sunday. This landmark documentary by Scratch Films for RTÉ Arts pieces together in words, archive, and classic song, the extraordinary story of one of Ireland’s best-loved cultural icons. A Session at The Burren in Davis Square closes out the weekend.
Full details at irishfilmfestival.org.
“We are very fortunate to yet again have such a great selection of films and talented film makers in our midst in Boston,” says Festival Director, Dawn Morrissey. “Stay tuned for some surprise guests, you never know who may turn up on this fifteenth anniversary weekend!”
