Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012: the Highlights

Al Pacino, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg and Glenn Close are among the stars set to descend on Dublin this February for the 10th annual Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Between February 16th and 26th, more than 130 films – Irish and international features, documentaries and shorts – will screen in cinemas across Dublin’s city centre (Cineworld, the Savoy, Screen, the Irish Film Institute and the Light House).

Acclaimed Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård officially launched JDIFF on February 2nd at the recently reopened Light House Cinema in Smithfield, along with Irish actor Amy Huberman.

The launch saw the release of this year’s programme, which we have weeded through to pick out a few highlights. Have a look at our top picks below, visit the official site for more information and get out to Dublin’s cinemas and enjoy.

Galas & Special Presentations

Every year JDIFF invites a host of celebs – movie stars and industry hotshots alike – to attend screenings, participate in Q&As and conduct masterclasses and workshops. This year is no exception, with a particularly impressive star-studded lineup that includes Al Pacino (Wilde Salomé), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Mark Wahlberg (Contraband), Martin Sheen (Stella Days), Michael Madsen (Jameson Cult Film Club screening of Reservoir Dogs), Kenneth Lonergan (Margaret), Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress), Marjane Satrapi (Chicken With Plums) and Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness).

The festival will open with a gala screening of Thom Fitzgerald’s hilarious, offbeat road trip flick Cloudburst, starring Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis as lesbian couple Dot and Stella, respectively. When Dot’s granddaughter schemes to separate them in order to get her hands on their house, the couple make a break for the border with plans to get married and hopefully stop her. On their journey from Maine to Canada, they befriend a young hitchhiker. You can expect great chemistry between the traveling trio, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and the message that love transcends sexuality. Cloudburst recently won the People’s Choice Award for Best Film at the Atlantic Film Festival. Writer/director Thom Fitzgerald and Irish actor Brenda Fricker will attend the screening.

Al Pacino himself will attend the screening of documentary-drama Wilde Salomé, an exploration of Oscar Wilde’s most controversial, and once banned, play Salomé . Written, directed and starring Pacino, this eccentric film is his interpretation of Wilde’s scintillating tale of lust, greed and the destructive nature of desire, starring Jessica Chastain as the title character. Pacino will participate in a public Q&A session following the screening.

Glenn Close plays a woman disguising herself as a man in order to survive in 19th-century Ireland in the Irish film Alfred Nobbs. Though the film has received mixed reviews, Close and Janet McTeer have been widely praised for their performances, and were both nominated for Oscars in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, respectively. The film also stars Mia Wasikowska and Brendan Gleeson. Close will attend the screening.

Proud Irish citizen Martin Sheen will also make an appearance; he will attend the screening of Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s Stella Days. Sheen plays Fr Daniel Barry, a determined priest who tries to establish a cinema in a small rural town in 1950s Ireland.

Based on true events In Darkness, tells the story of a Polish sewer worker (and part-time crook) who rescues Jewish refugees hidden in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied city of Lvov in Poland. Director Agnieszka Holland will attend the screening of this intensely moving film.

A gala screening of Ian Fitzgibbon’s acclaimed and touching drama Death of a Superhero will close the festival. Mixing live action with animation, the film follows a terminally ill 14-year-old boy as he retreats into his own imaginary universe in which he is no longer a skinny teen battling leukemia, but a strapping superhero on a mission to defeat a mad scientist. Starring Andy Serkis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Sharon Horgan and Michael McElhatton, this Ireland/Germany co-production garnered rave reviews following its world premier at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

First Look

The majority of the films shown at JDIFF are Irish premieres, and for some, this is the only public screening they will have in Ireland. This ‘First Look’ season consists of more films than any other in the programme. We’ve pulled out a few highlights for those of you who might be a bit overwhelmed by the many options.

Writer/director Whit Stillman will attend the screening of his offbeat American campus comedy Damsels in Distress , starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody and Analeigh Tipton. Set at an east coast university, the film follows a trio of beautiful, prim and proper girls as they set out to rescue their fellow students from depression and various low standards through a regimen of good hygiene and musical dance numbers.

Nominated for an Academy Award this year for Best Foreign Language Film, Joseph Cedar’s Footnote revolves around a power struggle between a father and son, a pair of ambitious academics who have both dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies. The film won for Best Screenplay at Cannes.

After a tremendous debut with You Can Count on Me, Kenneth Lonerman’s long-delayed second film Margaret has finally been released – and to many, the wait has been well worth it. Stunning, and provocative, this sprawling drama, set in a post-911 New York, follows a mouthy, self-absorbed teen who witnesses a bus accident and gets caught up in the consequences. Her contribution to the accident and participation in a coverup pulls everyone around her into a storm of destructive confrontations. Anna Paquin has been widely praised for a stunning performance as the lead character. The film also stars Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno and J Smith-Cameron.

Jeff Who Lives at Home is an indie comedy directed and written by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass (Cyrus). The film stars Jason Segal and Ed Elms as two very different brothers, one who’s 30 and still lives with his mother (Susan Sarandon) and one who's struggling with a failing marriage. When slacker Jeff finally leaves his basement room to run a banal errand for his mother, he discovers that the universe might be telling him something about his destiny.

Irish

In addition to screening Alfred Nobbs as a special presentation and closing with Death of a Superhero (both Irish co-productions), JDIFF has an entire season dedicated to Irish cinema. Among the highlights is Kristen Sheridan's Dollhouse.

Produced by The Factory, this Dublin-based drama explores a night in the life of a group of street teens who break into a home in Dalkey. Their activities become increasingly frenzied as the night progresses and a series of revelations come to the fore. The night leaves a lasting mark on them all. Dollhouse is Sheridan’s first film as both writer and director. In addition to screening at JDIFF, the film has been selected for screenings at South by South (SXSW) in Austin, Texas and the Berlin Film Festival.

German

Every year, JDIFF chooses to highlight one country for its cinematic tradition with a special mini-season all its own. This year, that country is Germany.

Out of this season comes one of this year’s highlights: the Dreiliben. The films of this crime trilogy are to be screened back to back on Sunday, February 26th at the Lighthouse. German directors Christian Petzoid, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler each made a film based on the same central story – the escape of a convicted murderer in a small German town – but each tells the story from a completely different point of view and in a radically different style.

Also check out The Day I Was Not Born, the winner of the Best Film prize at the Santiago de Chile International Film Festival. During a stopover in Buenos Aires, a young German woman, Maria, overhears a woman singing a Spanish lullaby at the airport and is startled to discover that, despite not knowing any Spanish, she knows the lyrics of the song. This revelation sets Maria on a path towards discovering her true origins as she learns she was adopted.

Documentaries at JDIFF

JDIFF’s programme includes a ‘Real to Reel’ section, dedicated to documentary film. We’re particularly looking forward to Buck, Calvet, This is Not a Film and Into the Abyss.

Buck examines the life of acclaimed ‘horse whisperer’ Buck Brannaman. Beat severely as a child by his father for not performing rope tricks to perfection, Buck was inspired to use gentleness and respect to tame wild horses rather than the whip. He has become a highly respected expert, well known for his skill of working with both horse and owner as a single unit. This visually stunning and warmly engaging documentary recently won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Calvet looks back on the harrowing past life of French painter Jean Marc Calvet. Following a troubled childhood, a violent adolescence, years of drug abuse and abandoning his son, Calvet found himself on the run in Central America, and on a path of self-destruction. This stylish documentary follows Calvet on his quest for redemption seven years after overcoming his addictions through art.

Smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive hidden inside a cake, This is Not a Film is a documentary about not making a film. After an Iranian court found him guilty of creating ‘propaganda against the regime’, filmmaker Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and banned for 20 years from filmmaking, travelling abroad and giving interviews. Awaiting the outcome of his appeal, Panahi is a prisoner in his own home. This is Not a Film documents a day in his life while under house arrest in his Tehran apartment. His isolation becomes palpable as we witness the mundane activities that make up the minutes of his day: he eats breakfast, talks to his lawyer on the phone, feeds his pet iguana, acts out scenes from a script he was never allowed to make into a movie. But these seemingly ordinary events are in fact an extraordinary act of civil disobedience. Subversively, this important film offers a bitter critique of state oppression.

And finally, don't miss Herzog's Into the Abyss. Through conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and the people affected by his crime, Werner Herzog explores violent crime and its consequences, in this remarkable documentary.

In addition to showcasing some of the very best in Irish and international film, the festival hosts several special events that allow the public to interact with filmmakers, including public interviews, panel discussions and Q&A sessions. Click HERE to see what ‘Special Events’ are taking place this year.

Every year, JDIFF screens a ‘surprise film’, and every year cinephiles drive themselves mad trying to guess what it’s going to be. And this year there’s two! JDIFF is screening a surprise film on Sunday, February 19th at Cineworld, and another on Sunday, February 26th at the Savoy. Speculation is futile – just go and enjoy!

JDIFF is also running a series of special programmes in conjunction with the IFI, featuring works by British artist Andrew Kötting, films by Derry filmmaker Terence McDonald and works from the Arts Council’s Reel Art scheme. For more information, click HERE.

Tickets for the 10th annual Jameson Dublin International Film Festival are available online for purchase. To book tickets, visit www.jdiff.com, call the box office at +353 1 687 7974 or pop into Filmbase in Temple Bar. The box office and Filmbase are open now, daily from 10am to 7pm.

There’s lots more going on at this year’s JDIFF than what’s mentioned here, including a slew of great classics. So for more information, visit www.jdiff.com.