The 2006 San Francisco Irish Film Festival

The San Francisco Irish Film Festival will screen this year’s very best new Irish cinema including, “Boy Eats Girl,” starring Samantha Mumba and Deirdre O’Kane, “The Mighty Celt,” starring Gillian Anderson and Robert Carlyle, and “Mickybo & Me” with Julie Walters.

Director Stephen Bradley and Irish pop diva Samantha Mumba will present Ireland’s new comedy zombie horror movie “Boy Eats Girl” during the Magner’s Irish Horror Night on Thursday March 9th. Also featured on Thursday will be Isolation starring Ruth Negga (Breakfast On Pluto). This is a scary tale of a genetically deranged cow.
The festival will also feature the acclaimed short films, “George”, “Useless Dog” and “Penguin Space Program,” as well as the documentary feature, “Big Plane, Small Axe,” about the plight of Mary Kelly, a nurse who attacked a US Navy aircraft in Ireland during the build up to war in Iraq.
The mission of the festival is to bring the best new Irish cinema to the Bay Area. Film is fast becoming a dominant art form in Ireland. Eleven full-length Irish features were produced in the country last year and the Irish Film Board invested $17 million in new Irish features, shorts and animated films. The total net worth of the Irish audiovisual industry is estimated to be $206 million.
The film industry is an example of how Ireland has taken capital earned from its high tech economic success and reinvested it into the movie industry – creating a new breed of Irish filmmakers who are pushing the limits of movie making in the same way as previous generations have pushed the limits of literature. In 2004, 21 films were produced in Ireland, creating 6,000 jobs and netting the Irish economy over €158 million.
The San Francisco Irish Film Festival is presented by the Irish Arts Foundation and co-presented with the San Francisco Film Arts Foundation.The film festival is supported in part by Culture Ireland – an Irish Government agency set up to promote Irish Culture abroad and Grants for the Arts of San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund.

Media contact
Press photos: http://sfirishfilm.com/?page_id=8
Niall McKay, director – 510-638-4871 – Email: email@niall.org
Festival information: 415-495-7380 – Email: RRwebmail@aol.com

http://www.sfirishfilm.com