10TH BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL


	ABOUT THE FESTIVAL: BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL TEAMDIRECTOR'S INTRODUCTIONBELFAST FILM FESTIVAL HISTORY

Festival Director

Michelle Devlin

Marketing Manager

Sarah Bell

Programmer/Print Manager

Michael Besnard-Scott

Documentary Comp Programmer

Cian Smyth

Programmer

Stephen Hackett

Special Events / Production

Sean Osborne

Box Office Manager

Mave Dempster

Project Co-ordinator / Production

Sharon Curran


Board of Directors Brian Henry Martin (Chair) Louise O'Meara (Vice Chair) Mark Cousins Kevin Jackson Laurence McKeown Patron Terry George		Programme Design Rodney Millar Associates Website Design Pauric McAnespy Additional Website Programming Nicklas Persson

Director's Introduction

Credit crunch, snow storms, global recession… none of it can quell our passion and enthusiasm for all things filmic. This years Festival features more than 130 screenings and special events from 30 countries, during a 10 day cinematic extravaganza.

There is much to celebrate in local film this year, in feature, documentary and shorts, the programme is brimming with a high calibre of talent. We have the premieres of first features Ditching, Pumpgirl, and Cherrybomb, and we will be celebrating local legends such as Davy Hammond, Brian Desmond Hurst and John T Davis.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame will screen to a live score in the splendid surroundings of St Anne’s Cathedral; Paul Merton will be with us; Crispin Glover will be live on stage; and we have O Brother, Where art Thou? with a live performance soundtrack.

As part of our Spotlight on India we are thrilled to welcome to Belfast, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of India’s finest contemporary film-makers. The cast and director, Paul Morrison of Little Ashes will be with us, as will Sir Ben Kingsley who will introduce his new film Fifty Dead Men Walking and Rupert Grint (of Harry Potter fame) will attend the Gala screening of Cherrybomb. In short we have a programme bursting with special events, guests, premieres and brilliant films.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new sponsor Movie House, to Sarah Bell our new Marketing/Festival Manager and to Susan Picken the great new talent heading up QFT. Thank you to Northern Ireland Screen, Belfast City Council, Jameson Irish Whiskey and Arts & Business. Thank you to the Festival board and staff team for their creativity and dedication. Also a huge thanks to all our 2009 partners and sponsors without whom none of this would be possible.

Whether a loyal fan or a new audience member, we promise there is much to discover and enjoy. So peruse the programme, get some great value tickets, take a seat and join us at the Jameson Belfast Film Festival 2009.

Michele Devlin
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

Belfast Film Festival History

In the past ten years Belfast city has began a process of transformation. The film festival has been part of that transformation and has played a significant role in the cultural regeneration of the city.

The Belfast Film Festival originated in August 1995 as part of feile an Phobail (West Belfast Community Festival). After five years of rapid development we moved to city centre premises in 2000 and expanded to a range of venues throughout the city. The festival's growth has continued with audience levels increasing on average 35% annually over the past 5 years.

Belfast Film festival has been at the forefront in championing cultural film exhibition in Northern Ireland. The festival is now one of the key annual events in the city. After a serious setback in 2004 when fire totally destroyed our offices, 2005 saw the festival's most major development to date. With new capital investment from European Union, Department of Social Development and Arts Council NI we moved to our new offices in the Cathedral Quarter and launched our Studio Cinema a 50 seater digital screening room.

Belfast Film Festival is unique in that it is the only festival which has a defined 'socio-political' focus on films complemented by a commitment to bring the best of new international documentaries to Ireland in our Maysles Documentary Competition. Each year a range of films, speakers and seminars focussing on a selected theme provides a platform for debate and enagagement between diverse section of the audience. Themes to date have included Reconciliation and Divided Societies; Ulster Protestant Identity on Film; Irish Women Film-makers; Human Rights and Film; Racism, Community and Film and in 2007 Societies in Transition: Policing for the People.