18 February 2019
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Cork Film Festival – Ireland’s first and largest film festival – has announced a new partnership in 2019 with the First Cut! Youth Film Festival, a successful four-day festival which is celebrating its 10th outing and takes place in Youghal, Co Cork in early March.
As part of this new partnership, Cork Film Festival will present a programme of short films for young people on Saturday March 9th, the final day of First Cut! Youth Film Festival. This will be specially curated from the 2018 Cork Film Festival Shorts Programme for young people at First Cut! to experience. The screening will be introduced by Don O’Mahony, Senior Programmer, Cork Film Festival followed by a Q&A with filmmakers.
Additionally, Cork Film Festival Producer and CEO, Fiona Clark, will announce the winner of a new ‘Cork Film Festival Award’, presented to an outstanding young filmmaker, from the 18 – 24 age category. The winning film will be automatically submitted for consideration for the 64th Cork Film Festival and the winner will receive full accreditation at the Festival, as well as complimentary access to the ‘First Take’ Industry Day, Cork Film Festival’s training and development event for emerging filmmakers. This significant new offering for young filmmakers marks the 10th year of First Cut! Youth Film Festival builds upon the successes of Cork Film Festival’s current programmes for young people, including a Schools Programme of screenings for young people which, since 2017, has doubled its participation figures.
Welcoming the partnership Festival Director for First Cut! Youth Film Festival Mary McGrath said “We are delighted to celebrate our 10th year of working with young filmmakers by forging a new partnership with the prestigious Cork Film Festival. We are proud to be associated with Cork Film Centre in this innovative way and look forward to collaborating with the Festival team to develop this exciting new initiative.
Our raison d’etre is to support and encourage filmmaking amongst young people by bringing them together in a vibrant festival atmosphere, to celebrate, network and showcase their work. The festival creates unique opportunities to take part in events and discussion panels hosted by film experts and to receive feedback on their films.
We celebrate this new collaboration which brings new opportunities for young filmmakers attending the festival in the Youghal from 6th to 9th March 2019. This curated programme will provide inspiration and a new learning for our festival attendees and the newly announced Cork Film Festival Award will provide encouragement and a new progression route in their filmmaking journey. This we hope will encourage and support further young filmmakers to aim for new heights and ultimately have their work showcased on an even larger platform!”
Commenting on this new partnership, Cork Film Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “This exciting new collaboration is an expression of our shared commitment to providing a meaningful platform for the work of young filmmakers in Cork and to enable young people to experience and be inspired by film within their community. Cork Film Festival and First Cut! Youth Film Festival actively champion the discovery of young talent and new voices in Irish filmmaking, so we’re delighted to be partnering with First Cut! to present the new ‘Cork Film Festival Award’ to support an emerging young filmmaker to continue to realise their potential through training and networking opportunities at the 64th edition of the Festival in November.”
Festival Overview
- Day 1 (Wed 6th March):
The event will open with screenings of animated films created by more than 200 children from 7 local primary schools. This will be followed with a presentation on the art of animation and a much-anticipated screening of the academy award nominated animated short ‘The Breadwinner’, directed by Nora Twomey of Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon. - Day 2 and 3 (Thursday 7th and Friday 8th March)
On Thursday the programme will screen a selection of the best short films submitted through the Open Call. These young people are from youth groups and secondary schools throughout Ireland. Friday’s programme will showcase short films made by secondary school students involved in the Cork Young Filmakers Project in the Mall Art’s Centre. It’s always incredibly exciting for the students to see the final edits of their creative efforts on a big screen. They come by the busload from all over the county!On Thursday evening a family Animation screening will take place. It is free and as seating is limited tickets will be booked in advance on a first come basis. This will take place on the big screen of the Regal Cinema and is a highlight of the festival for our younger audiences. It promises to be a great night out for local families.
- Day 4 (Saturday 9th March) – open to the public
Saturdays exciting all day programme is Free and Open to the public!
Screenings of the selected national and international open call entries will take place in both the Mall Arts Centre and the Regal Cinema. The general public, alongside the filmmakers, are invited to attend this day of the festival where they will see a wonderful range of inspiring shorts by filmmakers up to age 24.
For more information on the festival and details of the programme see www.firstcutfilmfestival.com
