KFF Films Selected for Canada

Rob and Ronan Burke Directors of RUNNERS

Kerry Film Festival is delighted to announce that two of last year's winning films have been selected for screening at the Nickel Film Festival in Newfoundland, Canada. The news further confirms KFF as an increasingly effective career spring-board for emerging filmmakers in Ireland and internationally.

The selected short films are RUNNERS, directed by Dublin-born Ronan and Rob Burke, which won the award for Best Irish Short at last year's KFF, and PASSING, directed by David Freyne, which won the award for Best Overall Short. Lead adjudicator at KFF 2010, Noel Pearson, said at the time that "this was the best selection of short films I've ever seen screened together, let alone had to adjudicate. It was very tough to choose a single winner."

"I never expected that having Kerry Film Festival screen my film would mean I'd end up getting a call from half way across the world," said David Freyne on hearing of the selection of Passing at the Nickel Film Festival. "The links which Kerry Film Festival have made with other film festivals mean that it really punches above its weight when it comes to getting your film seen by an international audience."

Ronan and Rob Burke are equally pleased that KFF has led to further interest in their film. "We're delighted that RUNNERS has been selected for the Nickel Film Festival. It's amazing to get such a good reaction from as far away as Canada and it just shows how a relatively small festival like Kerry Film Festival can spark international interest in your work," they said.

Over the past few years, KFF has forged links with a variety of international film festivals transforming KFF into an event that not only offers young Irish filmmakers an opportunity to screen their films at home but serves as a portal allowing Irish filmmakers the opportunity to screen their films much further afield.

"We're a director's film festival," said KFF's Jason O' Mahony. "We love the short films that we screen and we want the whole world to love them too! We're delighted to be able to offer young up-and-coming film makers a hand and to help them get their work seen at other festivals. Having said that, it's important to remember the reason the films are so popular in the first place and that's because the films are individually brilliant. Everyone involved from the directors to the producers, from the writers to the cast and crew and the IFB deserve great credit for making the films. For our part, we're just proud to be able to promote work of such quality abroad. Rob, Ronan and David are definitely directors for the future and my fervent belief is that they'll go on to win awards and play at festivals that will dwarf any honour KFF can bestow."

The Nickel Film Festival takes place in Newfoundland, Canada and runs from June 21st to June 25th and will see the screening of 55 films over five days. For more information please log onto www.nickelfestival.com