The Cork Film Festival is in its 61st year, and by the time you’re reading this it’ll be about halfway through its 2016 run (the fortnightly publishing schedule for the Express isn’t fun sometimes). For the most part, the film Festival is held in Cork City locations: so Triskel, the Gate, the Everyman, and St Fin Barre’s Cathedral. If you’re not around the City for the most part, the Gate Mallow and the Gate Midleton will also be showing films involved in the Festival.
Just taking a look through the programme from my perspective, ‘I Am Not a Serial Killer’ looks like a highlight for the Festival; directed by Cork native Billy O’Brien, and starring Christopher Lloyd of ‘Back to the Future’ fame, it follows a teen who has homicidal tendencies who is hunting (ironically) a serial killer. I Am Not a Serial Killer is among 80 Irish films included in the festival. After much media and government attention, the schedule for the 1916 centenary is winding down, and the Festival will be showing a collection of shorts titled “After 16.” Following the unfortunate passing of Gene Wilder, the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory will be shown, where you’ll get to see the role made iconic by the late actor.
On a personal note, I think it’s important that we go out and support the Festival. I imagine it’s only a small proportion of readers that are actually aware that the Festival had to receive a €200,000 loan from the City Hall in order for it to continue to function this year. The Festival acts as a pivotal point for young filmmakers, new filmmakers, and, more importantly, Irish filmmakers, but in order for it to be with us for years to come, it needs support from the Cork people, and this spreads out to us as students. In a University where it is incredibly likely graduates will be working on films that will appear in future Festivals, and even this Festival – get out and appreciate the work that they’ve worked for years to achieve!