KFF Films make a Splash in North America

The Kerry Film Festival (KFF), which is celebrating 11 years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, has partnered with a number of films festivals across the globe in an effort to promote the best Irish short films. This partnership has paid dividends and is a perfect means for KFF to screen films from the brightest up and coming Irish filmmakers in overseas venues and festivals.

"We've very proud of the films we screen and would love for them to have an audience all around the world," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of the Kerry Film Festival. "To that end we've partnered with a number of festivals in Spain, Italy, Sweden, Canada and America to promote the short films which screen at the Kerry Film Festival."

The Nickel Film Festival, which is based in Newfoundland in Canada, and took place from June 22 to June 26 screened 11 films from KFF 2009. Nickel is one of KFF's partner festivals and received a DVD compilation of the best of Irish short films from KFF. From this initial contact the programmers at Nickel picked 11 short films which all screened during the festival in Canada.

"We knew that KFF 2009 had particularly strong short films and we were really proud of them but we never expected Nickel to programme 11 of the short films," said O' Mahony. "We partnered with Nickel last year too and they screened 6 of the short films from KFF 2008, so to actually improve on that total was a joy for us and really speaks to the strength of the films. It's also a ringing endorsement of Irish filmmakers!"

The films selected for Nickel Film Festival included Conor Ferguson's THE WEDNESDAYS and Tony O Donoghue's A FILM FROM MY PARISH, which picked up prizes at the Kerry Film Festival award ceremony in November 2009. Dave Fanning was the MC at the awards ceremony, which also saw world renowned director, Rebecca Miller, on hand to pick up the Maureen O' Hara award.

CARDBOARD BOY, a film from young Kerry Filmmaker, Kelly O' Sullivan also screened in Canada. "Cardboard Boy was a particular favourite of mine," said O' Mahony. "The director, Kelly O' Sullivan, hails from Kerry and the wee film has an absolute heart of gold. It's great that the film was screened in Canada!"

The Chicago Irish Film Festival also screened a number of films that had previously screened in Kerry with Michael Creagh's THE CRUSH winning an Audience Award and Don Field and Roy Lecane's IT'S ALL ABOUT GEORGE picking up the Festival Award, both of these films also played at the Nickel Film Festival in Canada.