The Irish Times reports that yesterday the Irish Film Institute opened its doors on the renovation of its facilities, which included the first look at Cinema 3: a luxury 61-seat theatre with a digital screen.
Most the public areas: café, shop, and toilets have also been given a facelift.
To celebrate the IFI will offer a day of free screenings on Saturday, February 6th. Details of the programme of events will be released in late January.
Over 300 people attended a public meeting to launch a campaign to save Cork's Kino Cinema, the only independent art-house cinema outside of Dublin in the Republic, which recently announced it was being forced to close as a result of High Court proceedings by creditors seeking repayment of a debt owed for design work.
Kino owner Mick Hannigan confirmed that a special steering committee has been formed following the public meeting to both raise funds to pay off a debt of about €60,000 and to develop a business plan to put the 188-seat cinema on a sound financial footing.
Those in attendance included the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune, Labour TDs Kathleen Lynch and Ciarán Lynch, and Senator Dan Boyle.
The SaveTheKino.com web site has been established to co-ordinate the effort, and over 8,000 people have signed up to a Save the Kino group on facebook.
The Irish Times reports today that Kino, Cork's arthouse cinema, will be closing next month after a firm of architects began a High Court proceeding to recover €50,000 owed for design work.
Mr Hannigan said the debt arose from a plan he developed in 2003 to expand the 188-seat single-screen cinema into a three-screen facility with a total capacity of some 360 seats.
"We had got a grant of €750,000 from the Arts Council and the Film Board for the project which was costing around €3 million in total. I had managed to secure substantial borrowings but we were still left with a shortfall of around €1 million," he explained.
"Because of that shortfall, we were unable to proceed with the work so we never drew down the grant money but . . . we had to do a considerable amount of preparatory work including getting a design done and that's where the debt stems from.
"It's ironic really that our plan to actually expand the arthouse facilities in Cork has now resulted in the city losing its only dedicated arthouse cinema," said Mr Hannigan, who established the Kino in a former pool hall on Washington Street in November 1996.
The Irish Times reported on Saturday that Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have agreed to a revised programme for government that includes the retention of the Irish Film Board.
Speaking on behalf of the National Campaign for the Arts, Tania Banotti welcomed the decision:
"The Film Board is a specialised agency which has built up a unique expertise in the area of film finance and it would have been a terrible shame if it had been axed. We warmly welcome the government's decision."
Last week the European Audiovisual Observatory released a report that summarises cinema attendance across Europe for the first half of 2009.
With an estimated 348 million tickets sold between January and June 2009, cinema admissions in the big 5 European Union markets increased by 3.8% year-on-year. Cumulative growth was primarily driven by an impressive 14.5% rise in the UK, representing the strongest result in seven years, as well as increasing cinema attendance in Germany (+6.5%) and in Spain (+7.9%). Among the most successful films during the first six months of 2009 was Angels and Demons making it into the top 10 in all five major markets and topping the charts in Germany, Italy and Spain. Other films appearing in multiple top 10s included Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as well as Gran Torino and Fast & Furious. The 4.4% year-on-year decline France is due to the exceptional success of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis in the first half of 2008, though strong results in July and August may reverse the full year trend.
The European Audiovisual Observatory estimates that the cumulative results for France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain account for about 76% of total admissions in the European Union. The development of these five markets generally serves as good indicator for the overall European trend. The growth in the big 5 markets as well as strong half-year results in many other European countries such as Sweden (+27%), Poland (+16%), the Netherlands (+12.3%), Norway (+8.1%), Denmark (+7%), the Czech Republic (+6.8%), Hungary (+6.2%), Ireland (+1.8%) or Portugal (+1.3%), suggest that despite the difficult economic environment cinema admissions across Europe increased in the first six months of 2009.
Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) in partnership with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) have added extra tickets to their screenwriting conference entitled Give Me Direction due to popular demand.
Confirmed guests to date include Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Shane Meadows and Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, Somers Town), Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit), Conor McPherson, Neil Jordan, Pat McCabe, Roddy Doyle, Kirsten Sheridan and Mark O'Rowe.
The conference runs from 4-5 June, and the mix of screenings, talks and panels will take place at the Light House Cinema and the Shelbourne Hotel. A ticket costs €40.
Sky News reports that HMV, the retail music and DVD chain, will open arthouse cinemas above its stores to add diversity to its trade.
The music and DVD retailer has entered into a joint venture with Curzon Artificial Eye, the operator of the Curzon Cinema chain.
The project will be piloted at the HMV store in Wimbledon, south London.
The 200 seat, three screen hmvcurzon will be situated above the HMV Wimbledon store.
HMV chief executive Simon Fox said that the trial could be rolled out to larger stores, including above branches of Waterstone's stores, which is owned by HMV.
The cinema will be accessible to customers during normal trading hours through the HMV store, but will have a separate entrance for when the store closes.
The Irish Times reports today that work will begin in June on Galway's new €4 million arthouse cinema.
The project has been spearheaded by a group called Solas, which represents the Galway Film Society, the Galway Film Fleadh, the Galway Film Centre, and the Galway Arts Centre,
Three cinemas are incorporated in the design – a 176-seater at basement level, a 77-seater on the second floor and a 105-seater on the third floor including 28 seats on the balcony.
The cinemas, equipped for 35mm and digital projection, will screen films of the "widest cultural diversity and will offer programmes that are innovative in form and challenging in content," the city council says.
"Programmes will include Irish-made films, films in the Irish language, European and independent feature films, documentaries, animation, classic films as well as thematic, archival and retrospective cinema. Special emphasis will be given to educational screenings and matinee opportunities for diverse audiences," it says.
The development includes a cafe and a bar area, a book and DVD shop and an online archive link to the National Film Archive and "specialist online cinema resources", the council says.
The project was earmarked in the current city development plan which recognised a "deficit of culture and arts infrastructure in the city". The authority has acquired additional property in the area as part of its "cultural quarter" plans, incorporating the new cinema and the existing city museum.
Yesterday the news was announced that Irish Multiplex Cinemas (IMC) will add RealD 3D capabilities to each of its multiplex locations for a total of fourteen RealD 3D-enabled screens. The roll-out will be completed by April in time for the release of the children's animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens (DreamWorks Animation).
Paul Ward, director of IMC said, "The RealD 3D technology being installed in all IMC Cinemas shows IMC's commitment to providing not only the best in customer service, but also the best customer enjoyment of the cinema going experience by the early introduction of the newest technological advances available."
Bob Mayson, managing director of RealD Europe Ltd. said, "Ireland is an important market for us in Europe and we're extremely pleased to be working with IMC to outfit all of their multiplex locations. Paul Ward and his team understand the potential of RealD 3D and are grasping the opportunity with both hands."
RealD’s next-generation technology is deployed across the world’s largest 3D platform in more than 34 countries with over 8,000 screens under contract and nearly 2,600 RealD 3D screens today.
The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival announced its programme for this year's festival, and tickets are now on sale via their web site and box office. The festival will open with Oscar-nominated 'Doubt' as well as a variety of Irish features including 'Dorothy Mills', 'The Daisy Chain', and the recent winner at Sundance: 'Five Minutes of Heaven'.
Other big international films to screen include the Cannes-winning 'The Class' as part of the French Gala Event, the Swedish 'Everlasting Moments', 'Two Lovers' starring Gwyneth Palthrow and Joaquin Phoenix, and the film adaptation of the best selling book 'Marley and Me'.
Other Irish films will also feature including the IFTA-nominated psychological thriller 'Dorothy', the teenage drama 'Cherrybomb', Ivan Kavanagh's 'Our Wonderful Home', 'Eamon' by Margaret Corkery, and the Desperate Optimists-produced feature 'Helen'.
Director John Crowley will have two of his latest films screen - 'Is There Anybody There?' starring Michael Caine and the BAFTA-winning 'Boy A', There will also be a 50th Anniversary screening of documentary maker George Morrison's 'Mise Éire'.
Irish feature documentaries to screen include 'Stone Pastures', 'A Song for Dad' and 'Liam Clancy Live at the Bitter End'. There will be a range of Irish short films from the Short Cuts, Frameworks, Lasair, and Oscailt schemes on showcase also.
The premiere of Cartoon Saloon's animated feature 'The Secret of Kells' will close the festival on Sunday 22nd February.
Other events include the inaugural Jameson Film Experience, which is themed around graphic novels: British actor Clive Owen (Sin City) will be interviewed onstage by Mark Dinning, Editor of Empire magazine.
There will also be the Creative Cinema Panel Discussion, and a public discussion with screenwriter / journalist / novelist Frederic Raphael.
Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board and the Arts Council have announced the organisations that will receive grants under the Cinema Digitisation Scheme:
The Cinema Digitisation Scheme is an initiative of the Cultural Cinema Consortium, a strategic partnership between the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board. The purpose of the scheme is to provide capital grants for the purchase and installation of digital projection equipment to cinemas that offer a cultural cinema programme on a year-round basis.
Films are increasingly being made available in digital formats and these grants will ensure that audiences in Dublin, Wicklow, Galway, the west and north west will have access to the best and most current releases in cultural and Irish cinema programming.
The Guardian reports that the National Theatre in London will begin broadcasting its plays to approximately 50 cinemas across the UK, beginning with Helen Mirren in the French classical tragedy Phèdre, written by Racine.
"It is something of an experiment," said the National director, Nicholas Hytner. "But we felt that somebody has got to try it and if somebody has got to try it then it has got to be us."
The season will be called NT Live. Initially there will be four plays beamed live by satellite for one night only to independent and arthouse cinemas across the UK to audiences that will have paid £10 a ticket. To try to regain some of the estimated £50,000 that it will cost to broadcast each play, the National also proposes to sell them for broadcast abroad.
The Irish Film Board (IFB) has announced that the Cultural Cinema Consortium--a strategic partnership between the Arts Council and the IFB--is launching a new scheme to provide capital funding grants towards the cost of purchasing and installing digital projection equipment in Ireland.
Capital grants towards the cost of purchasing and installing digital projection equipment will be made available to full-time cinema operators who can demonstrate that they currently provide a clear majority of diverse programming on a year-round basis. The scheme will offer grants to cover 85% of installation costs for up to ten cinema screens, subject to a maximum contribution of €75,000 per screen.
Simon Perry, Chief Executive of the Irish Film Board, said "It is vital that public funding intervenes to ensure that cinemas offering Irish audiences a wider choice of film, than that available in mainstream commercial cinemas, are not left behind in the digital race".
Fionnuala Sweeney, Head of Film and International Arts at the Arts Council, said "The Arts Council is delighted to be offering this grant scheme in partnership with the Irish Film Board, through the Cultural Cinema Consortium. It will help arthouse cinemas play their part in the digital age and ensure that Irish audiences have access to a diverse range of cinema programming."
The deadline for receipt of applications for the Cinema Digitisation scheme is 17:00 on Friday, 24 October.
According to the LA Times the recent devastating fire at Universal Studios in Hollywood has destroyed hundreds of classic 35-millimeter film prints. The original masters were safe in their vault in Philadelphia, but it takes $5,000 and several months to produce just one quality print. The studio had not yet assessed the total nature of its loss, but it's likely to affect several upcoming screenings of classic films at museums, festivals, and theatres.
The fire also ruined 5% of Universal Music Group's recordings: mostly big band and jazz recordings on the Decca label, and video copies of Universal movies and television shows. Universal Music Group is no longer part of the NBC, but it rents storage space from the studio.
Today, after an absence of twelve years, Dublin's Light House Cinema opens its doors to the public again.
The Light House Cinema at Smithfield is a four-screen, 600-seat commercially operated cultural cinema which presents a diverse and individual programme of the best Irish, independent, foreign-language, arthouse and classic cinema.
FÁS Screentraining Ireland is organising a masterclass with director, producer, and singer-songwriter Daniel Lanois on Saturday the 31st of May, 2008.
Called "the most important record producer to emerge in the Eighties" by Rolling Stone, Daniel Lanois has garnered praise for his work with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan. Like his sometime collaborator Brian Eno, Lanois has shown a flair for delicate, atmospheric touches, both in producing material for other musicians and in his own projects as a composer and recording artist. Stressing emotional vibrancy over the technical aspects of making albums, Lanois has recorded in such unlikely settings as castles and dairy barns in his efforts to elicit honest, spontaneous performances. The results of this visceral approach have ranged from the soaring intensity of his Grammy-winning coproduction (with Eno) of U2's The Joshua Tree to the moody, understated passion of Lanois' solo efforts.The day will begin at 12pm with a screening of Lanois' documentary, Here Is What Is, followed by the masterclass with Lanois, and it will cost €50.
He has worked in the film industry as a producer and composer working on Dune (1984), Birdy (1984), Last of the Mohicans (1992), Sling Blade (1996), and Sweet Angel Mine (1996) before underscoring Million Dollar Hotel (2000), and the 2006 Pixies documentary LoudQUIETloud. He has had original master recordings featured in numerous film and TV soundtracks including Philadephia, Trainspotting, Sopranos, and The Jacket.
The day before its official opening Dublin's Light House Cinema will host a charity premiere of The Waiting Room to benefit Threshold on Thursday, May 8th at 8pm.
Light House is delighted to support Threshold, the national housing agency, a near-neighbour, based in Stoneybatter, by hosting its charity premiere of The Waiting Room on Thursday, May 8.
A hugely entertaining debut from British writer/director Roger Goldby, The Waiting Room stars Anne-Marie Duff as a woman involved in a relationship with her married neighbour (Rupert Graves) and falling for caring man (Ralf Little), whose own life is less than perfect.
Tickets for the screening at 8:00 PM and a champagne reception on arrival at 7.30PM are €15. Tickets are available only from Threshold.
For booking details, phone 1890 929 777 or email mark@threshold.ie
The IFI in Dublin in conjunction with Horrothon are hosting the only Irish screenings of Grindhouse: the double bill of Robert Rodriguez's zombie flick Planet Terror with Quentin Tarantino's revenge b-movie Death Proof.
The decision to separate the two halves of Grindhouse for individual European release was a spectacularly misjudged one, essentially negating the purpose of the exercise while depriving audiences of a series of hysterical faux movie trailers buffering the main features (and worth the price of admission alone), courtesy of Rob (The Devil's Rejects) Zombie, Edgar (Hot Fuzz) Wright, Eli (Hostel) Roth and Rodriguez himself. The Heaven’s Gate of the Miramax generation? A natural born cult classic? Or both?You can watch Grindhouse on Saturday the 19th of April and Sunday the 20th of April in the IFI in Temple Bar, Dublin.
PolishFlimClub.com has been set up to promote Polish movies in Ireland. The web site has the schedule for venues, dates, and times when Polish films will be shown in Irish cinemas, and also features news, film reviews, and competitions.
Dublin's Light House cinema, which will re-open on May 9 in its new location in Smithfield, has a web site in place that will allow for online booking from May 1st. They are also looking for staff, and the details about how to apply are online.
The Light House also has a Facebook and a Myspace page for those who use social networking sites. There's even a Flickr site for those who want to view photos of the work in progress.
