- Music
- 08 Jan 15
A goodly part of the independent Irish film industry are heading to this year's Sundance Festival in Utah where no fewer than five homegrown titles will be shown as part of the Robert Redford-founded beano.
There's major hype surrounding Grassland, the latest from Pilgrim Hill man Gerard Barrett which is one of just 12 movies - literally thousands entered - to make it into the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. With a cast that includes Jack Reynor, Toni Collette and Will Poulter, the story of a young taxi driver on the fringes of the criminal underworld should have plenty of Love/Hate-style appeal.
The omens are also good for Strangerland, the Irish/Australian co-production boasting the talents of Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaver and Joseph Fiennes; Anglo-Irish hook-up, The Hallow, which has Colin Hardy as its writer-director; the big screen adaptation of Colm Tóibin's Brooklyn, which co-stars Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson and The Visit, a "creative documentary" about what would happen if an alien publicly pitched up on Earth.
"The authorities are immediately alerted - the military, defence and communication advisors, and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs," reads the blurb. "How to deal with this unprecedented event? How to reassure Earth's inhabitants, who are prone to panic, when you have no previous experience to draw upon?"