Directors, writers and actors line out for Schull's 10th Fastnet Film Festival

THE Fastnet Film festival, which will take place in Schull from Wednesday May 23rd–27th, was launched last week at the ‘Cinematographers’ Party’ at The Crane Lane Theatre in Cork. 

Speakers at the event included festival chair Pauline Cotter, casting director Maureen Hughes and writer Pat McCabe. 

Also in attendance to celebrate the huge success of the festival were directors Ken Wardrop and Myles O’Reilly and producer John Kelleher, as well as over 200 filmmakers. 

Stunt actor Peter Dillon, who will run several stunt workshops at the festival, came in  a Vikings costume to add a bit of drama.   

Academy Award-winning composer Carl Davis will conduct the Trio Apachés, in a live performance of his score, written for the event, of Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925) as the film plays out on the screen. 

There will also be over 60 participating guests in this year’s line-up including David Puttnam, Jim Sheridan, Lenny Abrahamson, Ken Wardrop, and Lance Daly. There will be more than 400 screenings from features, competition shorts, local interest films to world cinema programmes to include Black 47, Killing of a Sacred Deer, Making the Grade, Song of Granite, The Breadwinner, Michael Inside, and more. Deirdre O’Kane will host the now infamous Film Quiz – no prizes, just the filmmakers’ reputations at stake.

This, the 10th festival, will run a series of seminars, masterclasses and workshops covering, stunt acting, screenwriting, casting, auditioning, creating content on mobile, acting, shorts to feature, costume, special effects, funding, distribution, and more. Fringe events include the filmmakers’ hub, live music, drama, book readings, a movie quiz, café viewing all over town and free entertainment for all.  

See page 12 for more.