The Belfast Film Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary this month with one hundred and twenty five screenings across the city. Running from the 15th to the 30th April with events ranging from the UK/Irish premiere of Colin Farrell’s new film, Triage, to the ninth Belfast World Pong Championship, for those who prefer to try their hand with an electronic paddle.
BY BEN FINCH
More than sixteen thousand people attended events last year, and following the success of the Out to Lunch festival in January the BFF promises to be a major event. For the sixteen days it runs there are no less than five events each night, with locations as varied as the Black Box and QFT, to the Culturlann on the Falls and the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill.
Screenings range from French horror film ‘The Horde ‘(“Die Hard with zombies”), to the anime ‘Summer Wars’ to classics like ‘Kiss Me Kate’.
Music is provided by the beautiful Efterklang and psychedelic Wooden Shjips at the Black Box on 24 and 16 April respectively. If music’s your thing then there are also films on Nick Cave, Neil Young and The Doors.
As it’s the Belfast Film Festival, Irish film plays a large role with the premieres of ‘Cupcake’, ‘Five Day Shelter’ and ‘Empire’. Along with this is ‘Mickey B’ with its cast pulled from HMP Maghaberry and based on Macbeth. John Lynch (Cal, In The Name of the Father) will be in attendance at the premiere of ‘Five Day Shelter’ and will give an acting class and read from his new novel ‘Falling Out of Heaven’.
Other events on the programme are the Maysles Brothers Documentary Competition, Short Film Competition, Same Sex Cinema, which celebrates hilarious and heartbreaking stories of homosexuality from around the world, and a tribute to JG Ballard.
For those interested in creating cinema, BFF and NI Screen are running a two day seminar with BAFTA nominee Tony Grisoni (Red Riding Trilogy) and others from the world of film called Northern Exposure = Deal Closure.
For more information on the Belfast Film Festival go to www.belfastfilmfestival.org or visit the Box Office at 47 Donegal Place.