IFTAS 2012!

That time of year again and a big event last night. But enough about the France Ireland rugby match getting cancelled let's concentrate on the IFTAs!

TEN THINGS THE IFTAS GET WRONG!

That time of year again and this blog is already bored with slagging our IFTAs. That's the Irish Film and Television Academy awards. So instead of another snarky post here are ten things the IFTAs are not doing well.

IRISH FILM SUPPLEMENT IN TODAY'S DAILY MAIL!

That's the Irish daily mail newspaper. As expected there are a few ads for the colleges for young wannabe jobbing filmmakers. A rundown on tonight's esteemed IFTA awards with a few small articles. Nothing of interest and all published before.

IRISH CINEMA IS LIKE MICHAEL D HIGGINS' POETRY!

Doubt many outside Ireland realise that our new President is also a poet. However, some leading academic has called into question the quality of his writing. This professor says that it's not poetry but rather just ramblings. After hearing a recital of some of Higgins' poetry Shoot the cabbage can see what the critic means. So, here's the (usual) question: where is the critic of Irish cinema? Where's the Professor of Film Studies saying that most Irish films are not real cinema? That most Irish directors are not talented filmmakers? Our film awards are for medocrity?

NEW FILMS ON THE WAY!

Same as last year; a lot of titles getting made but few will do well. For 2012 the list of 18 titles include: Charlie Casanova (mentioned in several previous posts), Byzantium (Jordan's new one, not worth the interest), Jump, King of the travellers, Life's a breeze, Love eternal, Sanctuary (title already used by Tony Richardson), Shadow dancer (already mentioned), Silence, Stitches grindle (GREAT title!), What Richard did (Lenny Abrahamson's new one), Finding joy. No doubt one or two will be good but the rest certainly won't. It's the same old tosh from our Film Board but can't blame them when Irish cinema is so conservative, lifeless, and televisual?

FILM BOARD GIVE €50K FOR PRE-PRODUCTION OF INTO THE WEST REMAKE!

Thought this was a joke in today's newspaper but apparently Jim Sheridan wants to remake Into the West and our Film Board has thrown him 50 grand for pre-production purposes. Not that many outside this blog cares but here are a few problems with this: Sheridan is a sh*t director and state money should be given to newer 'talents'; the original movie was rubbish so why do we need another one; why does Sheridan need 50 grand anyway (surely his reputation could entice this from private sources); also I thought we had moved on from these kind of silly 'magical' movies? Just because the original version got made before the current Board existed is no reason to remake it? Also, his daughter is a Board member. Does anyone else in Ireland notice these things?

NO POST TONIGHT!

In bed!

ANOTHER VARIETY ARTICLE ON IRISH FILM!

According to today's newspapers where Grabbers gets a mention. The review notes the impressive scenery used in the film! Good to see that Irish film is getting noted abroad for the locations used instead of any quality?

VARIETY ARTICLE ON IRISH FILM

Just one of the four best picture nominees at the Irish Film & TV Awards has been released in Ireland. That highlights both how few Irish movies are made each year, and how hard it is for them to get local distribution. That might be true. But another reason is that IFTAs are a fix and ignore the low-budget Irish releases. The IFTAs are used as a selling point for new releases that no-one has seen. Instead they should be rewarding previous releases since the last awards.

OUR CHILD ACTORS ARE RUBBISH!

Had a look at the famous French film Forbidden games this week. Now there's an impressive movie using children in lead roles. So how come Irish movies with children are so bad? From the awkward acting in Kisses to the dire Into the West to the amateurish Mickybo and me to rubbish like Under the hawthorn tree. It seems that when Irish filmmakers use children it's for family-oriented stuff. Forbidden games is a powerful anti-war film that uses natural acting from kids. In this country it's usually Tops of the town-type acting from the junior members of cast. When the acting is uniformly bad the directors are at fault. So that must be it: our directors are not talented enough to get good acting performances out of children.

MAJOR COUP FOR IRISH FILM INDUSTRY!

That's the headline this week in our newspapers. Thing is it's for new TELEVISION productions getting made here. Directors involved are the jobbing hacks Ian Fitzgibbon and Kieron Walsh. So that great news for Irish crews and zero news for Irish cinema. Someone should tell the Irish examiner newspaper that TV and cinema are different?