Right from the kick off with Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan opening the 3rd edition of the Dingle Film Festival one could feel this was going to be an energetic weekend. Peter Blanchette began the festival with the world's first performance of his newest score for Buster Keatons Steamboat Bill Jr. At the end of his performance, which simply worked so well with the B&W images on the screen of Keatons genius slap stick, the audience immediately stood and applauded for at least 6 mins. This energy carried itself to the festival club at Lord Bakers where there was a piano bar and guests got to know each other into the early hours of the morning. Earlier Director Maurice Galway was seen posing for snap shots with the wonderful Sarah Maple both wearing flash boobs. Geoff Wonfor told the director of the festival that he will be back to make a one hour documentary on the festival.

Friday saw Saoirse Ronan at Casablanca and the Truman Show, which were part of the festival educational programme. The Truman Show is the best film ever said Saorise. The shorts programme was followed with an informative panel discussion with 4 of the film makers including Diane Namm, Maureen Ganz and Joanna Bowers Houghton from LA, and local man Keith Mannix from Tralee. The european premier of 'Bottleworld' screened to a full audience and 13 of the cast and crew were present - in from New York and Philadelphia, including the director Alex Smith and actor Scott Wilson with his wife Heavenly. Later, in the festival club, Alex was seen discussing film with his idol Jim Sheridan.

The IFB Seminar on writing comedy was very well attended with many laughs being created by Marc Flanagan and very informative information being given by both Ned Dowd and Pearse Elliott.


Anthony Pecks speech at the Gregory Peck Award Ceremony was special and reflected much of Gregory Pecks own thoughts and beliefs and is published in its entirety on the festival website. Jim Sheridan was wonderful, giving very special praise to Gregory Peck. The night ended in The Festival Marquee at the Garden Cafe, with Jim Sheridan, Anthony Wall, Geoff Wonfor, Ned dowd, Pearse Elliott, Debbie Vandermeulen, Alex Smith, Scott Wilson, Kevin Moriarty and so many more guests and film makers mixing and networking to DJ Robs sounds and visuals from film echoing out on the 16 barco screened wall.

Saturday kicked off with over 90 people present for the open submission comedy shorts programme and 8 of the 12 films represented. This was considerable as the temperature was high outside (as it remained all weekend), showing Dingle in its truest beauty. Geoff Wonfor arrived, with many fans, at 10am for the 10 hour run of The Beatles Anthology, showing on a bank of 16 barco screens and a wonderful sound system in the festival marquee. Special moments included seeing Geoff and Anthony Wall emotionally discussing times past in relation to the film. The marquee remained full all day with many staying for the duration, including its director Geoff. Meanwhile over looking Bin Ban Strand in the garden of Herlihy House 12 writers circled Marc Flanagan discussing writing comedy.

Samir Ceric interviewed Sarah Maple taking many questions from the audience and giving great insight into her work which continues to be exhibited in The Siamsa Gallery until early October.

A full house showed up for the production screening of Spiderhole which was followed by a reception hosted by Media Desk Ireland in The Dingle Bay Hotel.

The screening of Danny Boy: In Sunshine or in Shadow specially in memory of Chips Chipperfield was introduced by its writer Julian Lloyd and Executive Geoff Wonfor. It included a very special moment in the middle of the screening with the entire audience singing the title song. Chips brother Adrian was also present in the theatre.

Later the festival club in the night club led to many house parties with festival guests and punters seen making their way home well past 7am in the morning.

Again the IFB Comedy Shorts programme very well attended and a great laugh.

Geoff Wonfors interview by Philip King was packed out and showed everyone what a funny and expert story teller Geoff is. Geoff also announced to the public of his plans to make a 1 hour documentary on the festival in 2010 with Eugene O Connor being the DOP. Later Anthony Wall gave a fascinating account of being in Phil Spector's home shooting his documentary The Agony & the Ecstasy of Phil Spector.

The DFF board took some time to meet and look at changing the dates for next year, which will now be late March. The night finished in Seamus Begleys Shibeen out west on the peninsula with Seamus himself singing and playing along with many festival guests and the crew showing just how talented they all are. A DreamWorks moon hung over the mountains surrounded by a starry night wrapping the festival in a most poetic and fitting end.

Last night at the Dingle Film Festival, the Gregory Peck Award for excellence in the art of film was presented to Jim Sheridan by Anthony Peck.

Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan opened the 3rd edition of the dingle film
festival in the phoenix cinema where Peter Blanchette was given a standing ovation following his performance of his new sound track to Buster Keaton's 1928 classic Steamboat Bill Jr.

09. 09. 09
This Wednesday at 7pm
All Welcome

Press Release
Irish Film Board Industry Partnership with Dingle Film Festival 2009
The Dingle Film Festival are proud to announce the Irish Film Board (IFB) as the festivals industry partners at this years third edition, which is running with a comedy theme. Irish Film Board will present a seminar on writing comedy for the screen, entitled Dont Make Me Laugh chaired by Andrew Meehan, Development Executive of the Irish Film Board and a special screening of award winning comedy short films.

Panelists at the seminar will include Emmy Award winning screenwriter Marc Flanagan, (credits), stage, radio, screen and TV writer Pearse Elliot, (Man About Dog); and producer Ned Dowd, (Shanghai Noon, The Wonderboys and Speed Dating); The seminar will explore the challenges of writing comedy for the screen, different ways of developing character, the role of TV in developing talent as well as looking at what makes comedy travel. Chairman Andrew Meehan, Works directly with the Chief Executive, the Development Executive assesses development-funding applications on behalf of feature films and manages the slate of Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board projects selected for support

The programme of short films includes such wonderful comedies as, Granny O Grimms Sleeping Beauty, where a seemingly sweet old lady loses the plot as she tells her version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified granddaughter) and Right Now Ladies and Gentlemen, a darkly comic tale of a lonely young man who is persecuted by an over zealous pub bouncer.

Maurice Galway, Dingle Film Festival Director and founder says I am truly delighted to have built this partnership with Bord Scannan na hEireann it will help Dingle Film Festival in defining itself in an otherwise very competitive area of the film industry.

Marc Flanagan, who is specifically flying in from Los Angeles to attended the Festival, will also be giving an intimate workshop, for a limited amount of participants, entitled Writing for Comedy. Marc himself facilitated comedy workshops at Warner Brothers Studios when writing on their lot and has been Executive Producer on a number of TV programmes, including Madigan Men for ABC and Murphy Brown for CBS. He has also written and produced many of Tracey Ullmans programmes for Fox TV and HBO.

Other retrospective comedy screenings will include the hilarious Man About Dog, Withnail & I, the Big Lebowski, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and to open the Festival, Peter Blanchette will perform live his newly commissioned score to the Buster Keaton 1928 classic Steamboat Bill Jr.

For further information on Dingle Film Festivals comedy theme, their Visual Arts Programme, the music in film element, (including the worlds first ever public screening of the full Beatles Anthology), their Educational Programme and their Workshop Programme log on to www.dinglefilmfestival.com Bookings can be made at bookings@dinglefilmfestival.com or by calling the booking number on 085 7788743
Dingle Film Festival runs from 10- 13 September 2009.