Originally published in Movies Plus Magazine, 2003
For the past number of years, Dublin has become seen as a film-loving city, and with Ireland having one of the largest cinema going publics in Europe, this is hardly surprising. 2003 marks an exciting new development in the realm of Irish cinema – The first Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
The festival, which is principally sponsored by Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, will run at the Screen Cinema on D’Olier Street, the Savoy on O’Connell Street, the Irish Film Centre in Temple Bar and the UGC Cinema on Parnell Street from February 14th to 22nd. It slots neatly into the film world’s cultural calendar, with the Berlin and Cannes Festivals on either side of it.
The Jameson Dublin international Film Festival began life as far back as 1999 when Rory Concannon, CEO of the Festival, who previously worked as Marketing Director of the Abbey Theatre first met Jaques Henry Bezy of Jameson’s and they started working together on building a relationship between Jameson and the Festival. “To me this partnership represents a perfect union of brands and reflects a commitment to the support and development of the best in film culture for Dublin,” explained Concannon.
Jameson is no stranger to the world of film and has established a strong working relationship with film and cinema in Europe. As far back as the 1960′s, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were hosted at the Old Jameson Distillery in Smithfield when they were in Dublin to promote The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Over the past ten years Jameson have established “Jameson Clubs” across Europe, which are now standing features of International Film Festivals such as Venice, Berlin and Cannes. Since 2001 the “Jameson Short Film Awards” have encouraged young film directors and left a lasting impression on film festivals throughout Europe.
The Irish Times, XtraVision, HB Ice Cream, FM 104, The Arts Council and Dublin City Council also support the festival.
The festival will present over 114 films from 30 countries worldwide during its 11 day run. Films shown included The Missing starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones, Monster for which Charlize Theron won the Oscar for Best Actress, Blind Flight, the true story of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy’s harrowing incarceration in the Lebanon, and a host of other features.
The festival will be choc-a-block with famous names and faces and wherever possible, the festival provided public interviews and Question and Answer sessions with production teams and the casts of the films presented. Guests of the festival included actress Laura Frasier, Tom McCarthy; director of The Station Agent, Karl Golden, writer/director of Irish feature, The Honeymooners, actress Susan Lynch and director of 16 Years of Alcohol, Richard Jobson.
To reflect the truly international nature of the festival, there was a whole section devoted to New International Cinema. Also in this section there were films from as far a field as Argentina, New Zealand and Russia.
One of the major surprises in the festival was the wide range of emerging and established Asian Cinema included in the programme. Particularly dominant in this section was South Korea, which offered no fewer than four titles. Thailand, Japan and China also featured in this programme.
The 2003 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival will be a huge success with the wide, eclectic range of films being shown, there was definitely something for everyone.
