THIS WEEKEND MARKS the closing weekend of this year’s Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival (VMDIFF), and as usual it’s been two weeks jammed with the best new films from across the globe.
It’s also been a big year for the festival, as it’s 20 years since its inception. To mark the occasion, we asked some well-known names and fans of the festival for their memories.
Here’s what they had to say:
David McLoughlin, Co- Founder of Dublin International Film Festival
“I had known Michael [the late Michael Dwyer, The Irish Times Chief Film Correspondent, and co-founder of the festival], as a good colleague and great friend for many years, from the time he offered me the venue manger and then festival manager roles of the original DFF, which we both moved on from in the mid-‘90’s.
“Although that festival wound-up in 2001, the fantastic audiences were very much still there, with all their enthusiasm and almost insatiable appetite to experience the best in Irish and world cinema and interact with leading and emerging national and international talent.
“This was the spur for Michael and I to decide to re-establish a Film Festival for Dublin, very much in the mould and spirit of the original festival. Step one was to bring together like-minded enthusiasts for the project who would bring a broad range of skills, experiences and contacts to enable us launch the inaugural Dublin International Film Festival. Thus the new board met for the first time in November 2002 at which Michael was appointed programme director and I became its first chairperson.
“What was striking was the unanimous degree of focus and degree of faith in the objective of launching the first festival in just three months. No time for focus groups, strategic plans or detailed projections – they would all have to wait till later. The over-riding goal was to have the funds, films and film-markers in place to present to the Dublin public in early March 2003.
“With the early endorsement and financial support of the Arts Council and Jameson, the Festival’s first title sponsor, that made that task more achievable. Michael immersed himself with gusto in securing the leading and latest titles and availed of his legendary contacts and charm to entice many big names to Dublin to meet audiences at the first DIFF, which proved to be a major success.
“On the first closing night I recall Michael and I indulging in his favourite tipple, co-incidentally distilled by our title sponsor, to celebrate with relief that our whacky idea of a few months earlier had been realised. All that remained to be done was to ensure we and all the team could repeat it again the following year and into the future.”
Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival
“Trying to identify one single festival highlight from the past 14 years since I took up the role is near impossible. A million images come to mind: the audience watching In Bruges, Julie Andrews singing at dinner, Danny DeVito laughing with glee while watching War of the Roses, Daniel Day Lewis speaking after There will be Blood, Al Pacino being nervous at the start of Wild Salome, Claudia Cardinale and Barry Keoghan’s instant connection and the dream team of Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci.
“With over 100 films every year there are too many to list – Stranger by The Lake remains one of my favourite films, Il Divo, Women Make Film and of course the surprise films, particularly Get Out.
“But one day stands tall: we still refer to it as Happy Sunday, the final day of our 2014 festival. It started in the Savoy cinema at 10am with the documentary about backing singers Twenty Feet from Stardom with Claudia Lennear, who sang a few songs in the cinema afterwards. Followed at 2pm by the wonderful Harold Lloyd film Safety Last with Neil Brand on piano. The surprise film at 5pm was Muppets Most Wanted which Ricky Gervais introduced with a fantastic recorded message with Kermit.
“And finally our closing night film was John Butler’s debut feature The Stag, a really funny comedy with its great Irish cast. That was a good day.”
Aidan Gillen, actor
“My favourite DIFF memory is DEFINITELY the screening of Treacle Jr in 2010. I hadn’t seen what had been a labour of love and incredibly satisfying to make on a big screen til then, and bringing along the Master of the Universe himself, Aidan Walsh (who my character was based on) and most of the cast of Love/Hate whom I barely knew as we didn’t start shooting til the following week as well as my mammy etc was as good as it gets.
“I won’t forget the reception the film got, and then all round to The Hacienda for a badly organised (by me) but brilliant after-party…
“Treacle Jr is one of my fave things to have ever done, top 3 definitely, and I’ll never ever regret asking Grainne Humphries if they’d consider screening it. Thanks for that DIFF!”
Rick O’Shea, RTE Broadcaster
“I’m one of the old school who has not only been to almost all of the 20 years of DIFF, spent some of those early years doing full days back to back, but was back to the early 90s at its previous incarnation (the year I saw Reservoir Dogs and a late night screening of Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures was a particularly good one, as was the one where Josef Locke serenaded Screen One of the Savoy after Peter Chelsom’s Hear My Song!)
“My personal highlight? Conducting a public interview with Richard Dreyfuss on the deck of the Orca after a sold-out screening of Jaws in a fully immersive round room of The Mansion House. To this day he was one of the most open and candid interviewees I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to.
“This year my highlights have been Salary Man and The Worst Person In The World. Both super!”
Paula Woods, Film Producer and Board Member, Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival
“My first DIFF experience was back in 2007 when I accompanied Quentin Tarantino for an out-of-festival special screening of Death Proof. It was a packed screening at The Savoy.
“The cinema was buzzing with the energy set to become electrifying when Quentin bounded down the aisle for the on-stage introduction, pint in hand. He was thrilled to be in Dublin and did a shout out to Irish actress Bronagh Gallager, who had appeared in Pulp Fiction, before he did his classic mic drop – the sign for the projectionist to start the movie.
“With the opening scene appearing on the screen, Quentin took his seat in the middle of the audience surrounded by fans.”
Emer Reynolds, Director and Editor
“I have been lucky to attend many incredible screenings at DIFF over the years, but understandably enough, for me none come close to the premiere of my film The Farthest in 2017. It’s a documentary feature, ostensibly about the superstar spacecraft Voyager, but really it’s a film for anyone who has ever looked up and wondered about our place in the Universe, and what it means to be human.
“When Gráinne Humphreys offered us the closing Sunday afternoon slot, we were overjoyed. She was the first person to really see that the film was a broad-appeal family film; one that could potentially reach all ages and be enjoyed by space geeks (like myself) and proper humans alike!
“In the majestic Savoy 1, the cinema where I had seen my very first film – Star Wars in 1978 – I remember vividly our film reflecting on the upturned faces of the packed audience and feeling wave after wave of emotion flow up and down the cinema. When it finished, Gráinne welcomed every one of our tiny crew to the stage, and we were so humbled, proud and thrilled to be celebrated by our home audience.”
To find out more about Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, visit the website. This year’s festival runs until tomorrow, 6 March.
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