CFF Highlights

Over the five days of this year’s CFF, some of the most memorable highlights were an Audience with Patrick McCabe and Paddy Treacy on Thursday night, where fond memories of Clones in its cinema heyday were shared. Friday night saw the return of Paddy Goodwin & The Holy Ghosts with a host of celebrity guests as well as a screening of scriptwriter Barry Devlin’s most recent feature ‘A Kiss for Jed Wood’. Saturday and Sunday brought happy hoards of children along to the kids’ screenings in the extremely cosy Cinemobile on the Diamond as well as a very moving screening of ‘Senna’ on Saturday afternoon and the highly entertaining ‘Submarine’  on Saturday night, kindly attended by Barry Ryan, Head of Production on that feature. Hacienda played a set of monumental proportions later that night in the Lennard Arms and once again CFF would like to thank them for their unrelenting Festival Club support. On Sunday afternoon a large crowd attended both Declan Reynolds’ most recent short film ‘Lose the Booze’ starring Pat Deery, and a heartwarming screening of ‘The Runway’, undoubtedly the most feelgood movie of the festival. This is the third year that CFF has worked with Clones Courthouse and, as this co-operation grows, many visitors to the festival have commented on the warm ambience and superb facilities of the beautiful old building which lends itself very favourably to cinema screenings.

The “Francie” Awards

Closing night of the Film Festival has come to mean only one thing: the excitement and anticipation of the Francie Awards, which have become one of the festival highlights, and which drew, as usual, a large crowd of local aficionados and visiting filmmakers to the Lennard Arms on Sunday night.
The Ballroom was packed to capacity as the tension rose, and the judges - filmmakers Dara McCluskey and Mary Keane, and Clones’ own Harry Cleary, announced the winners of the coveted “Francie” awards - beautifully crafted bronze statues by local man Jason Crowley.
Cathy Sheerin of the festival committee thanked all of the local sponsors, in particular Clones Credit Union, Supervalu and Scanbitz, in addition to the Arts Council, Monaghan Co. Council and Leader for their ongoing support. She also thanked the very many people who had contributed over the ten years of the festival in ways too numerous to mention, and the filmmakers and local people who continued to attend and participate in the event.
The award for Best Short Film in the Fiction / Experimental category went to Lucky Seven by Claudia Heindel, with a special commendation going to Shellshock by Jason Corcoran.  Best Short Documentary was awarded to “A Documentary About Me and Running Really Far” by Liane Costello. Finally, The Gonzo Theatre group from Cavan swept the boards of the 48 hour film challenge,  in which teams of filmmakers must bring a film from script to screen in two days, by winning both the jury and the audience awards.
Brendan Jenkins of Clones Credit Union, the main sponsors of the night’s proceedings, congratulated all who had been involved in the festival over the last decade and in particular the festival committee who had worked tirelessly through the year to bring about the event.
Additional entertainment (as if it was needed!) on the night was provided by Cormac McCann who performed his original score for the silent movie “The Unusual Inventions of Mr Henry Cavendish” to an enthralled audience, and the party continued after the awards ceremony with a barnstorming gig by the up and coming band “The Strypes” followed by Tenth Avenue DJ who played up a storm of tracks. The dancefloor was hopping till the wee small hours ….a fitting end to the tenth anniversary of the Clones Film Festival, which promises to return with more movies, madness and massive amounts of fun for 2012 …..watch this space folks!

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