With eight selections at Toronto International Film Festival, Bobby Sands 66 Days box office success, Love is a Sting winning Best Foreign Film Award at the LA Shorts Fest , not to mention recognition of Room and Brooklyn at the Oscars, it seems that the World has grown a real taste for our National Cinema. And now it has been announced that six feature films funded by the Irish Film Board will be shown at the London Film Festival.
A Date for Mad Mary is the refreshingly funny directorial debut of Darren Thornton. Set in Drogheda, the film tells the story of Mary McArdle (Séana Kerslake) who has recently returned home after a stay in prison. When her best friend Charlene denies her a plus-one to her wedding on the grounds that she probably couldn’t find a date, Mary begins the difficult search for a suitable candidate and hilarity ensues.
The Young Offenders written and directed by Peter Foott is set in Cork and is based around a massive cocaine seizure off the Irish coast in 2007. Two teens embark on a mad-cap adventure in their attempts to nab some of the profit. This film had the highest box office opening for an Irish film this year.
The Secret Scripture comes from the pedigree of Jim Sheridan who put Irish Cinema on the map with classics My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. The film follows Roseanne McNulty (played by Rooney Mara and later by Vanessa Redgrave), a Sligo woman who ends up in a mental institution after a storied life. The Secret Scripture was also featured at TIFF.
Without Name is an atmospheric psychological thriller set in a mysterious Irish forest. This film was also amongst the Irish picks at Toronto.
A Dark Song tells the story of a determined woman and an occultist’s attempts to perform a dark ritual for their own gain. It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh earlier in the year.
I Am Not A Serial Killer is a horror set in a small Midwestern town in which a troubled teen with homicidal tendencies must hunt a supernatural killer. Fans of Back to the Future will be glad to see Christopher Lloyd play a role.
The London Film Festival runs from the 5th-16th of October.