The ninth Capital Irish Film Festival (5 – 8 February 2015) brought some of the best of contemporary Irish film to Washington D.C. This year’s highlights included a screening of Frank, Niall Heery’s Gold, Sinéad O’Brien’s fascinating documentary Blood Fruit and Keith Farrell‘s A Terrible Beauty.
Adam McPartlan attended the festival and, in the first of a series of audio interviews, speaks to Paddy Meskell, Chairman of the Board of Solas Nua, a non-profit organisation dedicated exclusively to contemporary Irish arts, who run the Capital Irish Film Festival.
Listen to his now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon.
Adam then spoke to Anne Anderson the 17th Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, to find out about the huge appetite among the 40 million Diaspora to connect with Ireland through film and how festivals such as the Capital Irish Film Festival can bring Irish culture to a wider American audience.
Listen now on SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Acast and Amazon - or subscribe to Film Ireland wherever you get your podcasts.
About Capital Irish Film Festival
Solas Nua’s annual Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington, D.C., presents one of the largest programmes of Irish cinema in North America, showcasing the latest Irish dramatic and documentary features, shorts, art films and animation releases by Irish and Ireland-based filmmakers.
The festival provides a US platform that amplifies the work of independent filmmakers working in Ireland and beyond, and celebrates the strength of Ireland’s contemporary cinematic culture. The programme highlights the country’s rich cultural heritage while fostering an inclusive and diverse community of Irish filmmakers. Capital Irish Film Festival champions emerging voices on Irish screens, showcases the exceptional talent and craft within Irish filmmaking, and reflects the robust and vibrant screen industry that has grown in Ireland in recent years.
The festival also presents the annual Norman Houston Short Film Award, dedicated to the memory of Norman Houston, the former Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau (NIB) in the United States. The award honours the best new short film created by a filmmaker based in or from Northern Ireland, made within the previous two years. The 2026 Norman Houston Short Film Award goes to writer-director Oliver McGoldrick for his film Three Keenings.
Read more on SolasNua.org, follow Capital Irish Film Festival on FilmFreeway here.
