Fresh Film Festival, incorporating Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Awards, has received over 1,700 submissions for this year’s festival, the highest number of submissions in the festival’s 23-year history. The Fresh screening panel has now viewed all submissions and has selected films by young filmmakers from Limerick to screen at the Regional Heat in the Belltable Arts Centre on Tuesday, March 5th. The regionals heats are also taking place all this week in Leinster, Cork, and Limerick, and next week in Galway.
Films shortlisted for the final will be announced at the conclusion of each regional heat and will be screened at Fresh Film Festival 2019 in Limerick from March 25th to 30th and Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Awards will be presented on the March 27th and 28th during the Festival.
Now in its 23rd year, Fresh Film Festival encourages young people from Ireland and overseas, aged 7 to 18 years, to create, exhibit and share films. The festival provides an opportunity for these young filmmakers to have their work seen on a cinema screen for the first time and to compete for the title of Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year. All films submitted are also considered for a range of Specialist Awards including the Radharc Trust Award (documentary), the Boulder Media Animation Award, the RTE 60 Second Short Film Award and the RTE Factual Award, in addition to the International and Audience awards.
Other highlights of Fresh Film Festival 2019 include feature screenings and workshops, such as such as the Industry Master Class with the National Youth Film School.
Reflecting on the volume of entries for this year’s festival, Fresh Film Festival Director Jayne Foley commented, “Fresh Film Festival is all about encouraging young people to tell their stories through film, so the record number of submissions this year shows we have a nation of young storytellers with something to say and the creative means to say it. We’ve been overwhelmed by the entries this year: The future of filmmaking in Ireland is bright!” She went on to say, “Fresh is now an international event and we are now seeing films made by young people from Iran, China, USA, Korea and all over Europe. This year we received over 1,700 films made by young people, films that tell stories and reflect the lives of all these different cultures. This is so exciting”.
These screenings are open to the public, but space is very limited, so advance booking through the Fresh Film Festival is essential: (061) 319555 / info@freshfilmfestival.net.
