IN ATTENDANCE: Mags Kissane with her son Thomas McGuire and Aileen Garvey (KIFF) pictured at the launch of this year's Kerry International Film Festival yesterday evening (Thursday). Photo: Grigoriy Geniyevskiy

22nd Kerry International Film Festival launched

Yesterday evening (Thursday) the official opening of the 22nd Kerry International Film Festival (KIFF) took place at Randles Hotel, Killarney.

This year’s festival is taking place October 14 to 17 and presents a blended film festival that promotes and showcases film and filmmaking talent across 15 in-person physical events and 30 online screenings.

KIFF’s opening night screening featured 'Death of a Ladies’ Man', starring Gabriel Byrne, and this year, the festival will close with the Irish Language feature 'Foscadh' (Shelter), which recently won Best First Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh. 'Foscadh' was also recently selected by the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) as Ireland’s entry to the Oscars®’ Best International Feature Film category for the upcoming 94th annual Academy Awards.

"We are delighted to be able to bring KIFF back onto the big screen with Cinema Killarney as our main venue," Eibh Collins, Festival Director, said.

"We are also thrilled to be returning to Tralee for our closing night film, which will screen at Siamsa Tíre. Running parallel to the in-person programme, we have a robust and exciting online programme streamed from the KIFF website to audiences’ devices-of-choice."

Some of the online programme highlights include KIFF’s three new themed strands. The ‘Something's Not Quite Right’ Strand, KIFF’s Environmental strand presented by Irish actor Jack Reynor, and KIFF’s All Abilities strand.

KIFF will be presenting Something's Not Quite Right, a series of screenings showcasing this genre that includes a selection of horror and psychological thrillers, including Irish and Irish-US co-production 'The Yellow Wallpaper', 'Bring out the Fear', 'Save me from Everything' and 'Gateway'.

KIFF is excited to announce that Irish actor Jack Reynor is KIFF’s newly appointed Green Ambassador. He and the programming team have put together a daily online selection of international environmental documentaries that highlight the challenges our environment faces today, including 'Hell or Clean Water' (Canada), 'Uni Yama Aida' (Japan) and 'Walk the Tide Line' (Finland).

ALL ABILITIES

Amongst these highlights is a film programme to celebrate the festival's new All Abilities submission field, dedicated to promoting the lives, stories and artistic expression of people with different abilities and disabilities. This selection includes Irish and International fiction and documentary shorts and the feature documentary 'Only I Can Hear'.

KIFF recently announced esteemed producer, Kathleen Kennedy, as the 2021 Maureen O'Hara winner. She is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated film producer and president of Lucasfilm (ET: The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Star Wars). Kennedy also oversaw the rebirth of the Star Wars Universe including the most recent trilogy which showcased Kerry to legions of film fans the world over. Audiences can now log online to view a special ‘In Conversation’ interview with Kennedy which his is hosted by producer Rebecca Flanagan (Smother, Handsome Devil) and is currently available on www.kerryfilmfestival.com.

As always, Kerry Talent is the star of the show, as they have two programmes of Kerry Connection short films and KIFF are honoured to support Kerry writer Katie McNiece’s feature 'Who We Love’, directed and co-written by Festival alumni Graham Cantwell.

These films and more will be in the running for the prestigious KIFF awards. The winners will be announced on Sunday at the KIFF Awards Brunch in JM Reidy’s.

KIFF was delighted to recently announce Kerry Airport as its title sponsor for 2021 and they are very grateful to be working with them alongside other key partners including The Arts Council, Kerry County Council, The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA), Randles Hotel Killarney, RTÉ Supporting the Arts, The Plaza Hotel Killarney, Tower Records, Kerry Broadband, JM Reidy’s as well as a wealth of local Kerry businesses.

Tickets, pre-booking and festival passes are now available to purchase at: www.kerryfilmfestival.com