By Rebecca Crockett
IRISH language film, ‘Fidil Ghorm’, will have its international premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California this month.
The film was shot in Rathmullan last October and has since won Best First Irish Feature at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh.
Rathmullan is the hometown of producer Pierce Boyce who worked on the project.
Pierce said: “I don’t usually have a lot of great ideas but shooting back in Rathmullan is up there with the best of them.
“The people were just brilliant, every single person in the town helped out in some way and I can’t wait to bring it up to the town for a special screening early in 2025. We are already making tentative plans but can’t reveal anything yet.”
‘Fidil Ghorm’- or The Blue Fiddle- follows 10-year-old Molly who believes if she can learn to play the fiddle like her father, she can wake him up from a coma. The story is one of community and culture, as Molly enlists the help of Malachy, who may lack a certain warmth but makes up for in musical ability.
Eidth Lawlor as Molly. Image credit: Galway film Fleadh
This is the 25th anniversary of the Newport Beach Film Festival which is the largest international film festival on the west coast. The festival celebrates contemporary screen culture and cinematic excellence.
In a landmark year for Irish talent, the festival is curating an Irish Spotlight event. ‘Fidil Ghorm’ will be showcased alongside the care-giving comedy ‘Four Mothers’ and a generation of disadvantaged women in ‘Housewife of the Year’.
Three Northern Irish features have also been chosen for the festival. These include Dead Man’s Money, which was the opening film at the Disappear Here Film Festival; ‘The Old Guy’, a new Simon West comedy starring Christoph Waltz; and ‘The Wise Guy’ which follows a lonely kid who finds solace in the woods and an American Gangster.
All three films were shot on location in Northern Ireland with funding support from Northern Ireland Screen.
The support for Irish pictures, both north and south, represents the growing success of the screen industry on the island.
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