Maureen O' Hara to Personally Present Juliette Binoche with Award

Maureen O' Hara

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating eleven years of bringing films to Kerry, today announced that Maureen O’ Hara will personally present Juliette Binoche with The Maureen O’ Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival, which runs from October 30^th to November 6^th.

"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 and we’re absolutely delighted that Maureen will be on hand to present the award personally. Maureen celebrated her 90^th birthday this year and to have her present the award this year shows the fortitude, resolve and determination that make her one of Hollywood’s true greats!”

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 6^th 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, multiple Emmy® and Golden Globe ® winner Jane Seymour, Oscar® nominated director Tomm Moore and Oscar® winning director James Marsh.

KFF to host county-wide Photography Exhibition

Dún Chaoin by Lanka Haouche Perren

Kerry Film Festival (KFF) will be pretty as a picture during the month of November as it opens a new exhibition featuring the work of over 30 photographers. Photography is an integral part of filmmaking and KFF decided to hold the competition to highlight how fundamental photography is to filmmaking. The exhibition is the result of an open submission process with more than 30 photographers submitting more than 250 photographs. Submissions came in from all over Ireland and as far away as Alaska and Maine in the US.

In a new departure Kerry Film Festival has partnered with Bank of Ireland and will utilise its widespread branch network to display the selected photographs all over the kingdom.

"We're delighted to partner with Bank of Ireland," said Jason O' Mahony, director of Kerry Film Festival. "The bank has a wide network of branches which will allow us to reach into all corners of Kerry. KFF is one of the most geographically dispersed film festivals, not only in Ireland, but in the world with screenings in Tralee, Killarney, Listowel, Kenmare, Dingle and Waterville and it's great that we can have an equally broad reach with the photography competition."

Jim Maher, branch manager of Bank of Ireland, Tralee is also delighted to be involved. "I hold Kerry Film Festival in a high regard for all the work they do all over Kerry. As a bank we value the opportunity to get involved in community based organisations. We hope that by using our branch network this new venture will provide a platform for art across the county and, hopefully, across the whole country in future."

Mayor of Tralee Arthur Spring will officially open the competition on Wednesday, November 3rd at 2:00 pm in the Tralee branch of Bank of Ireland. The exhibition will run during the Kerry Film Festival in Tralee and will then tour selected Kerry branches of Bank of Ireland.

"The photography competition was a huge success," said Mike Foley, Kerry Film Festival coordinator. "The quality and variety of photographs received was simply astonishing. We were absolutely thrilled with the work submitted and pleasantly surprised that work came in from all over Ireland and abroad. We had two very broad themes, Portrait & Action and Landscape & Wildlife, to encourage people to take part. I'm looking forward to the opening on November 3rd."

Given the amount of work submitted, selecting the pieces for the exhibition was no easy task and Kerry Film Festival enlisted the skilful eye of Andre Corvin, a top fine-art photographer based in Dublin to help with the process.

"We've worked with Andre in the past," added Mike, "and always found him to be an amazing professional. His fine art photography is outstanding. Andre is known nationally and has wide critical acclaim."

All selected photographs will be professionally mounted and framed and the exhibition will open in the Tralee branch of the Bank of Ireland on Castle Street. The framing of winning photographs is kindly sponsored by O' Meara Fast Framing Service in Tralee Shopping Centre. The exhibition will open at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, November 3rd and runs until Wednesday, November 23rd. It will then begin its county-wide tour.

Christie Hennessy Documentary to play at KFF

The 11th annual Kerry Film Festival has a jam packed calendar of wonderful events, a mix of popular old venues and screenings that offer something for everyone!

One of the highlights is sure to be the screening of MESSENGER BOY: CHRISTIE HENNESSY, a wonderful documentary about one of Tralee’s favourite sons, Christie Hennessy.

The documentary was shot by Bill Hughes in late 2007. In December of that year Christie Hennessy lost his brave battle with the disease Asbestosis. He was only diagnosed with the illness in May 2007 and he worked tirelessly and relentlessly until his last breath, writing and recording with some of Ireland's leading artists including Christy Moore, Mary Black, Tommy Fleming, Moya Brennan and Finbar Furey.

In a series of deeply personal interviews with director Bill Hughes, shot in October and November in Dublin and London, Christie opened his heart and openly discussed his illness and the prospect of dying, while also revisiting his sometimes colourful and often challenging past, particularly his chronic dyslexia, his crippling nervous breakdown and his struggle to be accepted as an artist in his own right.

MESSENGER BOY: CHRISTIE HENNESSY will be preceded by a short on-stage interview that will see Christie’s daughter, Hermione, talking to Radio Kerry’s Weeshie Fogarty. Events will kick off in Siamsa Tíre on Saturday, October 30th, at 8:00 pm.

"The Christie Hennessy documentary is sure to be a real treat for all," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Kerry Film Festival. "It's an intimate, touching and very personal little film and will appeal to all Christie's fans, while the human story transcends the music and will appeal to all. We're absolutely delighted that Christie's daughter Hermione has agreed to do an interview before the film and would like to express our thanks to Hermione and also to Weeshie Fogarty who will interview her."

Director Bill Hughes will also be on hand to introduce the documentary. Tickets are 10 euro and are available from Siamsa Tíre on 066 712 3055 or on www.siamsatire.com

KFF Announces 2010 Adjudication Panel

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating eleven years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, today announced the adjudicators for the 2010 Kerry Film Festival, which runs from October 30^th to November 6^th.

The adjudicators that will judge this year’s Kerry Film Festival short film competitions are: Noel Pearson, Jane Seymour, Tomm Moore and James Marsh.

"The Kerry Film Festival is delighted to announce its line up of adjudicators," said Jason O' Mahony, Director, Kerry Film Festival. "From Noel Pearson, an Oscar nominated producer and arguably the finest Irish producer of all time; to James Marsh, an Oscar and BAFTA winning filmmaker, for his delightful documentary, MAN ON WIRE, to Tomm Moore who received an Oscar nomination for his directorial debut, THE SECRET OF KELLS, to multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jane Seymour, each and every member of the adjudication panel is at the very forefront of their chosen profession and we're absolutely thrilled that they will adjudicate for the 2010 Kerry Film Festival."

"This will be the eleventh year of the Kerry Film Festival and both the quantity and quality of the films has risen year on year," continued O' Mahony. "This year we received over 540 submissions for the festival and we felt it was hugely important to have an adjudication panel of the very highest standing to adjudicate the short films. We're hugely grateful to all the adjudicators for giving so selflessly of their time and for agreeing to adjudicate at this year's Kerry Film Festival."

The adjudicators have the unenviable task of selecting the best films from this year's selection. Over 540 films were submitted to the 2010 Kerry Film Festival, up significantly on the total number of films submitted in 2009, and more than double the number of films submitted in previous years.

For a brief Bio on the Adjudicators please see below:

Noel Pearson

Noel Pearson has been a film and theatre producer in Europe and the US for more than 25 years. His theatre productions of DANCING AT LUGHNASA (1991–1992) and AN INSPECTOR CALLS (1993–1994) collectively won eight Tony Awards.

In 1989 Noel produced his first feature film, MY LEFT FOOT, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker and Ray McAnally, directed by Jim Sheridan. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two Oscars ®. THE FIELD in 1990 was his next production, it was nominated for an Oscar and two Bafta Awards.

1998 saw Noel produce the film version of DANCING AT LUGHNASA and, more recently, in 2007 he produced HOW ABOUT YOU. He has also produced four successful documentaries. During this year and next, Noel intends to produce Sebastian Barry’s critically-acclaimed THE SECRET SCRIPTURES with a screenplay by Johnny Ferguson.

Jane Seymour

A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner, recipient of the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the year 2000, which was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Jane Seymour has proven her talents in virtually all media, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television while her love of art and colour has led to her great success as a painter in watercolours and oils and also as a designer.

Tomm Moore

Tomm founded Cartoon Saloon In 1999 with Paul Young and has worked as Director, Art Director and Animator. Tomm also illustrated several books for children and young people, including two award-winning graphic novels in the Irish language. The Oscar ® nominated THE SECRET OF KELLS (2009) was his debut as director of a feature film. He is currently developing his second feature film THE SONG OF THE SEAL. He prefers cartoons over real life!

James Marsh

James Marsh is an Oscar and BAFTA winning filmmaker of exhilarating and artistically intoxicating films. Probably best known for MAN ON WIRE (2008), a fascinating documentary telling the tale of Philippe Petit who, on August 7th 1974, stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings, Marsh's earlier films are held in equally high regard, particularly the cult classic WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP (1999), which starred Marcus Monroe and Sir Ian Holm, and THE KING (2005), which screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.