IndieCork Film Festival celebrates 10 years
The 10th IndieCork festival will be in The Gate cinema between October 2 and October 9 this year.
The festival that once broke away from Cork Film Festival to focus exclusively on supporting independent cinema now has BAFTA nominating status, with independent shorts, features and documentaries “in the thousands” submitted from 96 countries.
Speaking at the launch of IndieCork 2022 at The Roundy in Cork City Centre last night, festival co-director Mick Hannigan said it had been a risk to found the festival ten years ago.
“I vividly remember the first festival,” he said. “It was a plunge: will this work? Will we get an audience? Will we get enough films to screen? The answer was yes, and each year the number of entries has grown.”
BAFTA recognition
This year is the first time the festival is listed as a BAFTA-recognised festival, which means that films selected for screening on certain programmes at IndieCork are eligible for BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nomination.
“In broader terms, it’s like a stamp of approval; we’re on the list,” Mr Hannigan said. “Filmmakers look at the list of Academy nominating festivals and BAFTA nominating festivals and that drives their judgement about what festivals to enter and now, happily, we’re on that list.”
A regular year-on-year growth in the number of films being submitted to the festival has meant that the festival’s core team has also grown down the years.
This year’s opening film is a documentary on cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan. As well as a week of screenings in The Gate Cinema, films can be viewed as part of the online festival until October 16.
“We have a very strong documentary programme this year, and we’re opening and closing the festival with two documentaries that are both made by Irish female directors and they both concern significant Irish women: Vicky Phelan for the opening film and then poet Doireann ní Gríofa, who lived in Cork for many years, for the closing film,” Mr Hannigan said. “And Cork looks fabulous in that film: it looks like a very attractive place to live and a very supportive place for creative people.”
Made in Cork
The festival has developed a “Made in Cork” programme since its very first year to foster filmmaking in Cork and Mr Hannigan said the sense of community that has developed around IndieCork over the past decade has brought benefits for Cork’s filmmakers.
“Cork filmmaking has grown,” he said. “You’ve got more and more people making films and also professional companies strengthening their positions. So in the Made in Cork section this year, we have newcomers, which is fabulous, new talent and people emerging from college, but we also have people coming back year after year with new films. I think that’s really important to building a strong filmmaking community.”
“There are members of the Cork filmmaking community who help each other out, work on each others’ projects, and give each other encouragement and that’s all to the good.”
Another ten years
Mr Hannigan said he hoped IndieCork would continue to showcase and celebrate independent film for the coming decade.
“I think we found a niche for ourselves as a platform for Indie filmmaking,” he said. “Who knows what the future holds, but fingers crossed IndieCork will continue to play a role in encouraging independent talent, independent cinema and also, and in particular, in encouraging Cork’s film community.”
IndieCork Film Festival runs from October 2 to October 9 in The Gate Cinema, Cork, and online from October 2 to October 16. Full programme here.