Well, what a festival! We’ve come to the end of a wonderful 10 days celebrating the best in local and world cinema screening 116 films made up of 67 features and 49 shorts from all over the world. Many of these films were attended by the cast and the incredibly talented individuals who created them and participated in post-screening Q&As.
The festival opened with the world premiere of Patrick Kielty’s acting debut Ballywalter and he was joined on the red carpet by the film’s writer Stacey Greggs and director Prasanna Puwanarajah.
Amongst the other film premieres, attended by their filmmakers, was the UK premiere of Dean Kavanagh’s Hole In The Head; the UK/Ireland premiere of Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich’s Luxembourg Luxembourg; and the Irish premiere of Mark Cousins’ The March on Rome. The festival also played host to the joint Irish Premiere of Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun starring Paul Mescal.
Also in attendance at the festival were: actor and director Greg Sestero (The Room and Miracle Valley); Ukrainian actress Solomiia Kyrylova (Pamfir); Diana Vidrascu, cinematographer of The Cry of Granuaile; David Easteal, writer and director of The Plains.
Other highlights from the festival included a sold-out In Conversation Event with Andrea Arnold and Lisa Barros D’Sa and As Mine Exactly, an immersive half-hour experience for an audience of one, live narrated by documentary filmmaker, Charlie Shackleton.
One of the breakaway successes of this year’s BFF was Vox Populi – an installation of archive film within the much-loved and little-accessed Bank Of Ireland building on Royal Avenue.
Look forward to doing it all again next year.
Belfast Film Festival would not be possible without the support from our funders and sponsors, Northern Ireland Screen, Belfast City Council, Department of Communities, Film Hub NI., British Council, Film Hub North, Yellowmoon, BFI FAN Network and Millar McCall Wylie. Hospitality Sponsors include Hastings Hotels, Birra Moretti, The American Bar, Jawbox and McConnells Whiskey.
We wish to take this opportunity to thank our funders and sponsors, our board of directors and of course our audiences.