Star-studded premier set for all new Belfast movie next month
Kenneth Branagh's 'Belfast' will headline the 21st Belfast Film Festival
'Belfast’, the latest film from acclaimed local director Kenneth Branagh, and now the Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award winner, will have its Irish première at this year’s Belfast Film Festival at The ICC Belfast, Waterfront Hall.
Described as Branagh's cinematic love letter to his home, 'Belfast' tells the story of one boy’s childhood amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s.
Complete with a glittering cast, it stars Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds and introduces 10-year-old Jude Hill.
Dornan and Balfe play a glamorous working-class couple caught up in the mayhem, and Dench and Hinds portray the sharp-witted grandparents.
Tickets for ‘Belfast’ will go on sale across Northern Ireland on Friday 8th October at 10am.
The special event, which opens the 21st Belfast Film Festival on the 4th November, will be introduced by Branagh himself and attended by some of the film’s A-list cast in what will be a glittering homecoming night for the film.
Excited to return to Belfast for opening night Kenneth Branagh said:
"I am fortunate to have attended film festivals throughout the world for this most personal of films, but it was always my hope that we might be invited to bring ‘Belfast’ home.
"To be included as a part of the Belfast Film Festival is a great honour for us. This year's festival is packed with local talent in all areas of the industry from acting and directing to producing, and shows the phenomenal strength of the film industry here.
"It is great to see our young actors, Jude Hill and Lewis McAskie appearing in not one but two feature films in the Festival and demonstrates the depth of new acting talent. And I couldn’t be more delighted for Bríd Brennan receiving a special award; a truly great actress, and a cherished collaborator from the earliest days of my career."
Commenting on the launch of Belfast Film Festival’s 2021 programme, Director Michele Devlin said:
"Belfast Film Festival is certainly ‘bringing it all back home’ this year with a much needed sprinkle of stardust, as we welcome home some of our most internationally successful filmmaking talents.
"We are thrilled to host the Irish première of Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast’. A real full circle moment as the writer and director returns to a city much changed to that depicted in the film.
The theme for this year's Belfast Film Festival is 'Bringing It All Back Home'. It features a plethora of Irish talent with new films including a psychological thriller starring Andrea Riseborough, ‘Here Before’ written and directed by east Belfast’s Stacey Gregg; and a special screening of the gripping occult tale ‘Mandrake’ directed by Lisburn-born filmmaker Lynne Davison.
The Irish première of filmmaker Alison Millar’s documentary on the life of murdered journalist Lyra McKee will première at the festival. Looking at the career and life of the young writer, as well as exploring the tragic incident that resulted in her death in 2019, ‘Lyra’ was made with the involvement of her family, friends and partner.
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