A family affair for the Quinns

THE Irish actor Aidan Quinn, who last worked in Ireland when he played Harry Boland in Michael Collins, was backing Dublin earlier this week with his brothers, Paul and Decian, scouting locations for a new movie, This Is My Father. The film is very much a family affair for the Quinns, who spent much of their teenage years in Ireland, and Aidan told Reel News that he will star in the movie, with Paul directing and Decian lighting it.

This will be the first film directed by Paul Quinn, who is a theatre director in Chicago, while Declan Quinn is an accomplished lighting cameraman who has worked on a number of Irish projects and deservedly was acclaimed for his work on Leaving Las Vegas. This Is My Father starts shooting in Dublin in mid June.

BARRY NORMAN reported on Film `97 last Monday night that Frances McDormand and Kate Winslet had signed up for the film version of Brian Friel's Dancing At Lughnasa, to be produced by Noel Pearson. However, Pearson's office told Reel News that no casting is likely to be confirmed for another week or so. Pat O'Connor is set to direct the movie, which has been adapted for the screen by Frank McGuinness and starts filming in Ireland on August 18th.

QUENTIN TARANTINO has cast Pam Grier, a regular star of the 1970s blaxploitation movies, in the title role of Jackie Brown, Tarantino's first feature as a director since Pulp Fiction. Based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, it features Grier as a stewardess and prostitute who gets caught up in a plan to double cross a gunrunner and the FBI. Bridget Fonda and Samuel L. Jackson also feature in the cast of the new movie, with Sylvester Stallone likely to play the gunrunner.

Sharon Stone, Harry Dean Stanton and Gena Rowlands play the main adult characters in Peter Chelsom's The Mighty, which is now shooting in Toronto and deals with two schoolboy loners, one of them a disabled mastermind. Stone will follow this by taking on a role played by Rowlands 17 years ago - the title character in a remake of Gloria.

Jonathan Demme's first feature as a director since Philadelphia four years ago will be the movie of Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved, which will star Danny Glover and be produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. Meanwhile, Oscar nominated Australian director Scott Hicks is set to follow Shine with a film of David Gutterson's novel, Snow Falling On Cedars.

LIMERICK's third Irish Film gets under way next Wednesday with screenings of The Disappearance Of Finbar and Nothing Personal. The festival opens officially on Thursday night in the Savoy cinema with the premiere of Mary McGuckian's movie, This Is The Sea, featuring Limerick native Richard Harris along with John Lynch, Gabriel Byrne and Sainantha Morton. New and recent Irish features on the schedule include November Afternoon, Drinking Crude, The Uncle Jack, Snakes And Ladders and Spaghetti Slow.

Many recent Irish short films will be screened in the festival's competitive section, and there will be more prizes in the event's first video competition for Irish schools. This year's archive programme deals with the remarkable nature films of the late Patrick Carey. A screening of Ryan's Daughter will coincide with a Hunt Museum exhibition of photographs taken during the film's production in West Kerry by Kenbly, the movie's unit photographer, and Kevin Coleman, staff photographer of The Kerrtman.

A seminar on music soundtracks will feature a panel chaired by Micheal O Suilleabhain and comprising singer songwriter Johnny Duhan, November Afternoon composer John Carney, and Sinead O'Brien, whose hour long documentary on jazz musicians, Dusk Till Dawn, will have its premiere at the festival. Preceding the presentation of prizes on closing day, April 27th, will be an audience participation forum on Irish Destiny

Facing the Future, to be chaired by Siobhan O'Donoghue of MediaDesk Ireland. For further information, call (061) 318150.

FRESH from its Oscars triumph, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient took three prizes at the BAFTA craft awards in London last Sunday night - best film music, cinematography and editing. Richard III won two awards, production design and, costume design, while one prize each went to Shine (sound), Twister (special visual effects) and The Nutty Professor (make up hair).

The annual Michael Balcon Award for outstanding contribution to British cinema went to Channel 4 Films, and Steven Bocbco, producer of Hill Street Blues and Murder One, received the BAFTA Fellowship. Edited highlights of the ceremony will be shown on BBC 1 next Monday at midnight. The BAFTA performance awards will be presented at the Royal Albert, Hall in London on Tuesday, April 29th.

MORE awards: overshadowed by the sweep of independent productions at the Oscars, the recent Independent Spirit Awards proved a triumph for Fargo, which, won six Spirit awards - best film, director (Joel Coen), actress (Frances McDormand), actor (William H. Macy), screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen) and cinematographer (Roger Deakins).

Benicio del Toro was named best supporting actor for Basquiat, with Elizabeth Pena best supporting actress for Lone Star. Billy Bob Thornton took the best first feature award for Sling Blade; Heather Matarazzo from Welcome To The Dollhouse was named for best debut performance; and Stanley Tucci and Joseph Tropiano won best first screenplay for Big Night. Best foreign film went to Mike Leigh for Secrets & Lies.

EVEN more awards: Sue Clayton's The Disappearance Of Finbar, scripted by Dermot Bolger and Clayton and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Luke Griffin, was voted joint winner of the best picture prize in the New Directors section of the recent Madrid International Film Festival. The film goes on Irish release in June.

The Boy Fron Mercury, written and directed by Martin Duffy, won the jury award at the 18th Celtic Film and Television Festival in Cornwall, and the jury prize at the 3rd Festival of European Film in Hayange, France. It goes on release in Britain on May 2nd.

THE Ninth Galway Film Fleadh is scheduled to run from July 8th to 13th in the Town Hall Theatre with a programme of over 60 features, 12 of them Irish and including two world premieres, Tommy Collins's Bogwoman and Tom McArdle's Angela Mooney Dies Again, starring Mia Furrow.

The key theme of the fleadh will be Perspectives Of War and that programme promises the acclaimed Serbian film, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame; the Bosnian documentary,

Calling, The Ghosts; and Sergei Bordov's fine, Oscar nominated Russian feature, Prisoner Of The Mountains. A new fleadh slot will concentrate on New African cinema, and as ever, the event will present an international programme of features, shorts and documentaries.

THE new Ormonde Cinema Multi Screen Developent in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, which was officially launched last week, is as comfortable as it is hi tech and features seven screens, four more than before its development. With a bright and spacious new street level entrance, the Lower Kilmacud Road complex operated by Andrew O'Gorman and his family features Dolby SR Digital Surround Sound, newly designed seating and wheelchair access, and the cinemas are being equipped with special loops for the hard of hearing.

WHO but David Lynch would take negative reviews for his new movie and use them as part of the advertising campaign? Lynch's Lost Highway first film since the debacle of Twin Peaks: Fired Walk With Me, received some static reviews from the rich critics but opened to decidedly mix reviews in the US. That cross section of opinion is reflected in the American ads for the movie.

One recent ad in the New York Times quoted a reviewer's comment that Lost Highway is "guaranteed to repel", alongside another reviewer's quote that it is "a film to see repeatedly". A Los Angeles Times ad quoted the TV pundits, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's verdict: "Two thumbs down!", followed by "Two more great reasons to see Lost Highway."

Lynch commented: "My rule of thumb is, what Siskel and Ebert like, I don't, and vice versa. They're getting too warm in those sweaters. It's affecting their thinking."