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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Juliette Binoche to Receive Maureen O' Hara Award



The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating eleven years of bringing film to Kerry, today announced that Juliette Binoche is to receive The Maureen O' Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival, which runs from 30 October to 6 November. The award is named in honour of one of the most glamorous leading ladies of Hollywood’s golden era, Maureen O' Hara.

"We're absolutely delighted to award this year's Maureen O' Hara Award to Juliette Binoche. Juliette is an amazing actress whose talent has been recognised on the global stage. She has won a myriad of awards for acting all around the world, including the Venice Film Festival and this year's Cannes Film Festival. Juliette was also presented with an Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences," said Maureen O' Hara. "Juliette is, however, more than simply a stunningly beautiful woman and a brilliant actress; she has also displayed a devotion to a variety of good causes. I am absolutely delighted that Juliette will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her future career and, more especially, in life."

"The Kerry Film Festival is thrilled to present Juliette Binoche with the Maureen O' Hara Award," said Jason O' Mahony, Kerry Film Festival Director. "She is a wonderful actress and is a true leading light. In addition to her work in film she has worked tirelessly to overcome human rights abuses and is an active supporter of many worthy causes. Her role, in particular, in securing acclaimed Iranian director, Jafar Panahi's, release from prison earlier this year is worthy of mention. We're delighted that Juliette will be on hand to pick up the award at this year's Kerry Film Festival."

Juliette Binoche first attracted the attention of international film critics with THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (1988). Roger Ebert, the world renowned film critic from The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that she was, "almost ethereal in her beauty and innocence."

Binoche, however, pushed the boundaries of her craft with an appearance in Louis Malle's DAMAGE (1992) and, a year later, in Krzysztof Kieslowski's THREE COLOURS: BLUE (1993), which was a massive critical success, garnering Binoche the César Award for Best Actress and the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress.

After a sabbatical from film-making to become a mother in 1994, Binoche was selected as the heroine of France's most expensive movie ever, THE HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF (1995). Following that she won an Oscar ® for her role in THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996).

More recently she has starred in CACHÉ (2005), THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALOON (2007) and CERTIFIED COPY (2010), for which she received the Best Actress Award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, making her the first actress to win the three most prestigious European awards for acting.

While Maureen O' Hara was undoubtedly one of Hollywood's best loved actresses, she was much more than just a pretty face. When Maureen became an American citizen on January 25, 1946 she retained her Irish citizenship, which was the first time in history that the United States government recognized an Irish citizen as Irish and it led to a change in process for all Irish immigrants. Maureen was also the first female CEO of an American airline company. Whether in the movies, in politics or in business Maureen demonstrated a quality for leadership and a bravery that was extraordinary and Juliette Binoche displays many of the same characteristics.

The Maureen O' Hara Award acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields and Juliette Binoche is a most worthy recipient. The award giving will take place at the Kerry Film Festival Awards Ceremony in Siamsa Tíre in Tralee on Saturday, November 6th at 2:00 pm.

The Award Ceremony is the culmination of a week of films at Kerry Film Festival. The Awards ceremony will also feature the screening of award winning short films as adjudicated by Kerry Film Festival's panel of judges that include Oscar ® nominated producer, Noel Pearson, Oscar ® nominated director, Tomm Moore, double Golden Globe ® winner, Jane Seymour, and Oscar ® winning director James Marsh.

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Monday, September 6, 2010

KFF Receives a Record Number of Entries

Steph Green's New Boy, KFF 2007

The Kerry Film Festival (KFF), which is celebrating 11 years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, was inundated with short films for its upcoming festival. 541 films were submitted for the short film competition, with films coming from 38 different countries across the globe. The increase in submissions is testament to the work being done by the festival in both the promotion of Irish films abroad and the promotion of short-films in general.

KFF has partnered with a number of film festivals in other countries and the approach has paid dividends with the festival securing more entries than in previous years. The partnerships have also provided a perfect way for KFF to screen Irish films abroad.

"This will be the eleventh year of the Kerry Film Festival and both the quantity and quality of the films has increased every year," said Jason O' Mahony, Festival Director. "We received 541 short films this year, which is up almost 20% on last year. We've had films from as far away as Argentina and South Africa and as close to home as Cork and Killarney and we're absolutely thrilled with the response."

Festival staff now face the difficult task of whittling those 541 films down to the 60 or 70 films that will screen as part of the festival. "It's part of the fun of the job," says O' Mahony. "With such a huge number of entries the selection process will take some time but it's already well under way. We received close to 200 films from Ireland with more than 300 films coming from abroad so competition for places will be very tough, particularly given the quality of the films. It seems to rise every year!"

Films that are lucky enough to be selected will play during the Kerry Film Festival which runs from October 30th to November 6th this year. Screenings take place all over Kerry but Siamsa Tire in Tralee will be the main hub of the festival.

"We're very lucky in our partnership with Siamsa," adds O' Mahony. "It's an amazing venue and filmmakers absolutely love to have their work screened there. The venue is top-class. The screen and sound system are top-class. And the staff is always so helpful and friendly that we're really looking forward to all the screenings that will take place in Siamsa this year!"

Once the films have been selected by the festival panel, they will compete with one another for a number of prizes that will be judged by both festival attendees and a select group of film adjudicators.

"We've lined up a stellar panel of adjudicators to help select the winning films. James Marsh, the Oscar winning director of MAN ON WIRE and Tomm Moore, the Oscar nominated director of THE SECRET OF KELLS, will adjudicate the documentary and animated short films respectively."

Kerry Film Festival is quickly becoming one of the hottest small festivals on the scene, giving audience members a chance to see films by up and coming directors as well as an opportunity to interact with some of the most established names in the world. The festival also screens a number of features, while its education programme alone saw more than 2,000 students from all parts of Kerry attend screenings in 2009.

"Last year was a huge success, in terms of both the numbers of screenings and the audience that came," added O' Mahony. "But we're pretty confident that 2010 can even top that."

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