08/04/2013 - Festival’s industry event features bigwigs

The 13^th Belfast Film Festival (April 11 – 21) will open with Northern Ireland director Paul Kennedy’s debut feature Made In Belfast (photo). Final Cut [+see also:
film review
interview: Gyorgy Palfi
film profile], by Hungarian director György Pálfi, composed of scenes from the greatest movies ever made, will close the festival. Palfi spent over three years in the editing room collecting scenes from more than 450 international films and assembled them into a narrative. The festival will feature 110 screenings.

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This year, the festival’s Industry Insights panel sessions, presented by Northern Ireland Screen, features industry heavyweights including Clare Crean, The Works International; Natalie Brenner, Ealing Metro International; Sally Caplan, eOne Entertainment; Stephen Kelliher, Bankside Films; Siobhan Farrell, Eclipse Pictures; Julia Short, The Works; David Parfitt, Trademark Films; and Nick Manzi, Lionsgate Films.

Festival Director Michele Devlin said, “With the profile of the Northern Ireland film sector at an all-time high and increasing numbers of aspiring film-makers, writers and producers needing to know about the business of film, the time is ripe for some serious industry insights.”

Among the special guests at the festival this year is novelist Jonathan Coe, who will be introducing one of his favourite films, Billy Wilder’s take on Sherlock Holmes, and also introducing the films of BS Johnson. Tony Grisoni, screenwriter of Red Riding Trilogy, will talk about his work, while film critic and journalist Mark Kermode will be choosing his favourite films in conversation with Brian Henry Martin at the festival’s Desert Island Flicks event.