STORYBOARD
Féilte/Festival news
Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Olivia Colman's lead role in the film. The film is produced by Ed Guiney and executive produced by Andrew Lowe for Element Pictures.
The Golden Lion, Venice's top award, went to Alfonso Cuaron's Netflix-backed Roma, with legendary director Jacques Audiard winning the Silver Lion for Best Director for The Sisters Brothers. The Volpi Cup for Best Actor went to Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate. Ireland's Aisling Francoisi
missed out on the Marcello Mastroianni
Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress, with that award going to her The Nightingale co-star Baykali Ganambarr. Jennifer Kent's latest also won a Special Jury Prize. Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Screenplay for The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, which is also produced by Netflix.
The Favourite stars Olivia Colman and Academy Award winners Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone and marks the third collaboration between Element Pictures and visionary director Lanthimos following award-winning films The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.
The Favourite is written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. In addition to Element, other producers include Ceci Dempsey, Lee Magiday and Yorgos Lanthimos. The film is an Element Pictures/Scarlet Films production for Fox Searchlight, Film4 and Waypoint.
Fox Searchlight are releasing The Favourite worldwide with the US release scheduled for November 23rd. The film will hit Irish cinemas on January 1st.
Shebeen Flick, Berlin’s Irish Film Festival, is now accepting submissions from filmmakers for its 8th edition, which will take place on 13th-16th March 2019 in Moviemento Kino Berlin – Germany’s oldest cinema.
Since 2012, every March Shebeen Flick presents a curated programme with Irish films without distribution in Germany alongside some favourite Irish classics. The festival has become an integral part of the St. Patrick’s celebrations in the German capital and a must-go to event for film buffs and Irish culture lovers.
“This will be the third year accepting submissions for the festival and we are very excited to announce a new category: virtual reality. In addition, I would like to encourage female filmmakers to submit to the festival as one of our main goals is to achieve gender balance in the programme. I am looking forward to watching the submissions for 2019!” said Shebeen Flick’s Founder & Director Fernanda Parente.
Both feature and short length films (live action, documentary, animation, music videos) are accepted, as well as the newly added category virtual reality. Productions may originate from anywhere in the world. Eligible films may be made by an Irish filmmaker, a filmmaker working in Ireland or a filmmaker of Irish heritage. If the filmmaker is not Irish, the content needs to focus on an Irish subject matter.
Submissions will be accepted via FilmFreeway only. For full details on how to submit visit https://filmfreeway.com/shebeenflick.
Submission Deadlines is October 1st, 2018
14 CinÉireann / Issue 9