On Friday, November 29th, 2024, Galway UNESCO City of Film celebrated a major milestone with a special event honouring the groundbreaking work of acclaimed filmmaker Bob Quinn, whose contributions have profoundly shaped Irish cinema. Taking place at the Pálás Cinema, the evening featured a reception, the presentation of a prestigious award, and a screening of ‘Poitín’, a film that is a key cornerstone in Quinn’s illustrious career.
The centrepoint of the event was the presentation of the Ceantar Scannán Award to Bob Quinn by two distinguished guests: President Michael D. Higgins, a devoted champion of the arts, and renowned filmmaker and producer Lelia Doolan. This award honours Quinn’s immense contributions to Irish cinema, particularly his influential work in the West of Ireland, which has been pivotal in shaping Galway’s identity as a vibrant creative hub for film. Read More
Galway City of Film, managed by Ardán, and supported by Galway City Council, hosted a free screening for a European Night of Film at the Pálás Cinema on 11th May 2023 at 7pm, to celebrate EU50.
We were joined for a pre-screening reception in the Pálás Bar by the Deputy Mayor of Galway, Councillor Mike Hubbard, and the Polish Consul Patrick O’Sullivan.
The Double Life of Veronique (1991), directed by Krysztof Kieslowski is two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other living in France. In the story, the two women don’t know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected. (IMDb).
The film garnered a Golden Globe nomination as well as several wins at Cannes Film Festival.
Galway City of Film (Ceantar Scannán) is a UNESCO designation held jointly by Galway City Council and Galway County Council since 2014, and managed on their behalf by Ardán.
A special industry event held last night in Galway celebrated 2 key anniversaries in Film in the city. In 2014 Galway became the fifth city in the world to achieve the status of UNESCO City of Film, in recognition of the rich history and vibrant culture of filmmaking that continues in the city and county to this day. Galway City of Film is now celebrating its 5th anniversary of that recognition, and is taking a wonderful opportunity to look back at what has been achieved so far.
City of Film highlights include organising camps for young filmmakers and animators, hosting the One Minute Film Festival and 48 Hour Challenge, supporting short film funding schemes through Galway Film Centre such as Science on Screen and the GFC/RTÉ Short Film Scheme, local initiatives supporting industry including the Fís TV Summit and the WRAP Fund, as well as screenings, student exchanges, research and collaboration across the now 18 Cities of Film in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
With the confluence of these two events comes a unique opportunity to present our Galway UNESCO ‘City of Film/Ceantar Scannán’ Award to local film producer Lelia Doolan. An honour that has only been presented to one other recipient, Uachtaráin Michael D Higgins. It is difficult to think of anyone that has contributed more to the local and national film industry than Lelia Doolan and Galway City of Film wish to honor her and her legacy of incredible work by presenting this award to her as part of our celebrations.
Launched in 2014 by Uachtaráin Michael D. Higgins, Galway City of Film has offered valuable supports and resources to the filmmaking community in the city over the last five years that otherwise would not have been possible.
The award presentation was followed by a screening of Cumar – A Galway Rhapsody, a feature film directed by Aodh Ó Coileáin and produced by Paddy Hayes celebrating Galway artists including Rita Ann Higgins, Tommy Tiernan and Noeline Kavanagh.
The Galway 2020 Bid Film….Galway’s best kept secret!
For the past four months filmmaker Paula Kehoe has been working with Galway 2020 in partnership with UNESCO City of Film/Galway Film Centre, to create a specially commissioned 3 minute film. The Film was the first thing that the 10 members of the European Capital of Culture jury panel saw at Galway’s presentation in Dublin on July 14th in the National Concert Hall. Steered by Tracy Geraghty from Galway2020 and Declan Gibbons from the Galway Film Centre, Paula created an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) film as the opening chapter of Galway’s presentation. To see the film in all its glory the ECOC jury panel wore special VR headsets that allowed them view the film through 360 degrees that achieves the full VR experience.
This was a high-risk strategy as this was effectively Ireland’s first narrative VR Film and involved the ECOC jury panel having to engage in watching the film in an entirely different way. Award winning filmmaker Paula Kehoe was engaged as Galway 2020 ‘Filmmaker in Residence’ to respond to the bid and developed, created and delivered a film that is edgy, memorable and uniquely Galway. How to shoot the film, how to edit the film and how the jury would see the film were all key questions for Paula and her team.
Ireland’s only professional 360 camera crew worked on the project: Ian Fitzgerald and Terry Madigan from Virtual Reality Ireland. The 360 camera is essentially ten cameras in one and the shots are then sewn together and further treated in post production. Eugene McCrystal of Outer Limits Post Production (formerly EMC post, Room, Queen of Ireland, You’re ugly too) worked on the grade and visual effects Julie Flavin (Deargdhúil: Anatomy of Passion) was offline editor while James Latimer (Stutterer) was on sound.
This is a pioneering project in Ireland opening up new post production paths for VR immersive film.
Tracy Geraghty, member of the Galway 2020 Programme Team commented:
‘Paula Kehoe created a beautiful immersive cinematic poem for Galway 2020. The film not only echoes the themes of language, landscape and migration embedded in our programme but demonstrates how high artistic excellence can be achieved using new technologies. Members of the ECOC jury panel described their experience of viewing the film as ‘incredible’, ‘astounding’ and ‘epic and inspirational’.
Galway has been named European Capital of Culture 2020 at a ceremony in Dublin. Limerick and the ‘Three Sisters’ region of Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford had also competed for the title. Galway receives a prize of €1.5 million from the EU and will jointly hold the Capital of Culture honour with Rijeka in Croatia.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Jane Daly, Programme Manager for Galway 2020, said her initial reaction was disbelief followed by:
‘I cannot imagine what we would have done if we hadn’t won! There are 2,000 people on the streets of Galway watching live and they’ve all done so much – we were here representing them, it’s for the city and county of Galway and we’re going to deliver the most extraordinary Capital of Culture Europe has ever seen. We’ve got this!’
When asked about Galway’s preparations ahead of 2020, Daly replied:
“We’re ready to go! We’ve already started – we’ve done nine pilots on some of our projects. Everybody from Druid to Macnas to the music hubs to Athenry 2020, they were just waiting for the green light and now they’re ready to go.”
In Galway more than two thousand people turned out to hear this afternoon’s announcement at a specially erected big screen on Mainguard Street in the city.
Heads of State, Government leaders, UN High Level Representatives and civil society met in September 2015, at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These represent a universal, ambitious, sustainable development agenda, an agenda “of the people, by the people and for the people,” crafted with UNESCO’s active involvement.
Galway Film Society presents ‘The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki’ and Galway short film ‘Adulting‘ this Sunday 19th March at 8pm in the Town Hall Theatre.
We had 2 SOLD -OUT screenings of the One Minute Film Festival at the Galway Film Fleadh yesterday, Sunday 10th July.
We are delighted to announce that the 1st place prize went to filmmaker Carolyn Wagner for her film ‘Something Borrowed‘. She received €500 and was presented with the prize at the official Fleadh Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening.
We awarded joint 2nd place prizes to filmmakers Amy Joyce Hastings for her film “Body of Christ” and to Johnathan Connolly for his film “Family Favourite Moments”.
Thank you to all the filmmakers who took the time and effort to submit to this years One Minute Film Festival and congratulations to all three winners!
Galway City of Film recently visited Bradford City of Film and were warmly welcomed by everybody they met in particular David Wilson, Director of Bradford City of Film and his City of Film associates.
Celine Curtin, Chairperson of Galway City of Film fitted in an interview for ‘The Cutting Room’ radio programme in Bradford, a monthly radio show, hosted by City of Film Director, David Wilson that includes news, reviews and who’s who’ in the world of film.
Check out the interview here:
With thanks to David and his team.
#GalwayCityofFilm
About Galway City of Film
Galway City of Film/ Ceantar Scannán (meaning Region of Film as Gaeilge) is a UNESCO designation held by Galway City and County Council since 2014 and managed on their behalf by Ardán.
This means that Galway is recognised at an international level for its unique creative spirit, and for its past and ongoing contribution to film.
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