The 14th Belfast Film Festival was launched yesterday - timed just before the Oscars ceremony this weekend. Brian Campbell looks at some of the programme's highlights and talks to festival director Michele Devlin
A film about Northern Ireland's famous motorcyclist brothers Joey and Robert Dunlop and narrated by Liam Neeson will open the 14th Belfast Film Festival next month.
Road - made by DoubleBand Films - tells the story of the Dunlop brothers (who both died while racing) from Co Antrim and also the story of Robert's sons, William and Michael, who are both road racers today.
While all eyes in the film world will be on the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday for the Academy Awards, Belfast had its own little bit of big screen glamour yesterday with the launch of the film festival.
The festival opens on March 27 and ends on April 5 with the first screening in Ireland of the 3D version of Hitchcock classic Dial MFor Murder.
Special guests will include writer Jon Ronson, who will talk about his three years in the late 80s when he was the keyboard player with the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band. Ronson will discuss the true story behind Frank, a new fictionalised movie co-written by him and starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Domhnall Gleeson and directed by Lenny Abrahamson.
Poet Tom Paulin will do a talk about his perspective of the places in and around north Belfast where he spent his formative years, while film-maker Mark Cousins and musician David Holmes will talk about their forthcoming film I Am Belfast.
There will be a total of 116 films and 45 shorts from 38 countries screened at 20 venues - not just in cinemas but in churches, schools community centres and pubs.
The festival has its usual winning mix of brand new films - Irish, British and international - classics, documentaries, special events, talks and a short films competition.
Festival director Michele Devlin says she's delighted with the 2014 BFF programme. "I think it's the most diverse programme we've ever had, with 38 countries represented and taking in everywhere from Ukraine, India, Transylvania, Syria, China, Venezuala and even Strangford Lough. "It's not possible every year to have a local film that you can open the festival with, but Road is a fantastic film. "The road-racing scenes really jump out - it just makes you feel like you're on the bike and in the middle of the action. We were blown away by it and we're delighted to have it. "It's also a family story and it's got universal appeal. It's a very dramatic story and Liam Neeson is brilliant at narrating it."
Some of the highlights are a live performance of the Dawn of the Dead score by Simonetti's Goblin, a celebration of the music of Patrick Doyle, a church screening of the kaleidoscopic epic Baraka and The Congress - Ari Folman's follow-up to the critically lauded Waltz With Bashir.
The latter film features Robin Wright, Jon Hamm, Paul Giamatti and Harvey Keitel, while Kristin Scott Thomas and Daniel Auteuil can be seen in Before the Winter Chill.
The Sunflower bar will screen Marvin Gaye: Live1964-1981, Road House (with Patrick Swayze) will be shown at The Hudson, while Breaking Ground is a documentary made by an all-female crew about the London Irish Women's Centre, a radical organisation in London from 1983 to 2012.
Another standout, The Distance, is billed as a heist film unlike anything ever seen before and revolves around three telekinetic Russian dwarves.
Bad Hair is the story of a nine-year-old boy's obsession with straightening his hair, eliciting a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother, while Escape From Tomorrow concerns an epic battle that occurs after a middle-aged American husband and father of two learns that he has lost his job. The man gathers his family and embarks on a day of park-hopping amid enchanted castles and fairytale princesses, before this manufactured mirth of the fantasy land around him begins to haunt his subconscious.
Some classics on the bill include Days of Wine and Roses (with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick) and a screening of the Frank Capra/James Stewart film Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
Also of interest will be Cross and Passion at An Culturlann, filmed in Turf Lodge in west Belfast, the BFF Quiz and a night all about Seinfeld - 'Seinfest'.
The festival - sponsored by 02 International Sim - also features a strand educating people about human trafficking and modern slavery and 'Cineroma', an outreach section with themes including schooldays, addiction and faith on film.
Director Michele says she's happy to have Mark
Cousins and David Holmes signed up. "We're really excited about that event. Their film is still a work in progress, so we were surprised that they agreed to do it. I don't think it'll be finished until July but they'll be showing some clips and talking about it."
And she says she's happy that the launch coincided with the weekend of the Oscars. "Yeah, we think it's nice to launch it in the middle of awards season when people are talking about film a bit more."
* The 14th Belfast Film Festival runs from March 27 until April 5. For full programme and tickets, visit BelfastFilmFestival.org or call 028 9024 6609.
* SPOILT FOR CHOICE: Highlights at this year's Belfast Film Festival include Bad Hair (above, left), Escape From Tomorrow (above, centre), Days of Wine and Roses (above, right), Seinfest (far left), Baraka (centre) and The Congress (below, left). Jon Ronson will also give a talk to discuss his story that inspired the film Frank (below)