CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

Just another night at the movies. Not if you're at the third Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Festival director Michael Dwyer on the celluloid juggling act that will bring you one of the world's most vibrant cinematic celebrations

There are 95 feature films and two programmes of short films in the third Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. That's about twice as many features as shown in the official selection at Cannes every year, and less than half the total shown at the Toronto festival. In spirit and policy, however, the Dublin festival is much closer to Toronto.

At the twice-nightly gala screenings in Cannes, black-tie is de rigueur, and it's not unusual for people to be sent back down the red carpet in ignominy for wearing the wrong shoes. Cannes is also driven by its competition for the Palme d'Or, which creates a tense atmosphere because there are always more losers than winners, and the endless speculation distracts from the films on show. And after 23 years of attending Cannes, I still have no idea how a member of the public, anyone who doesn't have some form of accreditation, can buy a ticket to any of the festival screenings.

Dublin is tuxedo-free, as is Toronto, where the voters for the most important award are the audience. The Dublin festival operates on a tiny fraction of Toronto's budget, but its ambition is similar - to deliver the best of world cinema to the paying public, which is appropriate given that Dublin registers the highest cinema admissions per capita of any European city.

The essence of the Dublin festival is to present a snapshot of all that is exciting, different, adventurous, thought-provoking and entertaining in world cinema at this point in time. Less than a handful of those films will go on release before the event ends, which some people resent, but it's a fact of life at film festivals across the world - at Cannes, for example, at least half the films in competition will be released all over France within a day or two of their Cannes premières.

Some more will open here over the weeks after the festival, others will arrive months later, and more than a few will never again be seen on an Irish cinema screen.

Among the many well-received films at last year's festival, none of which received a subsequent cinema release here, were My House in Umbria, Rosenstrasse, Greendale, Evil, Pieces of April, The Clay Bird, Blind Shaft, Comedian, Errance, Forest, Choses Secretes, Mister V, Pupendo, Tais Toi, It's All About Love, and Afterlife.

Each film chosen for the festival is included because it deserves to be there, for any number of reasons. For me, it is an honour and a pleasure to have the sole responsibility of choosing all of them. Festivals programmed by committees suffer, I believe, from all the horse-trading and compromises such a system entails.

The response from the firmly independent-minded Irish cinemagoer always yields surprises. Last year some films, which seemed assured to sell out, struggled at the festival box-office while others - in particular, the documentaries in the Real to Reel strand - had to be promoted to bigger auditoria to meet the audience demand.

One of the programme's principal aims is to communicate that special thrill of discovery on seeing visionary or imaginative new work from formerly unheralded film-makers. A case in point last year was the marvellous Italian epic, The Best of Youth. Running close on seven hours with a short interval, it seemed a risky proposition, not least because the hungry hardcore festival audience had the alternative of gorging themselves on three other movies over the same time period. Happily, the film drew a full house and a rapturous response, and went on to enjoy a sustained run at the Screen cinema when it opened nine months later.

On the evidence of this year's festival programme, world cinema is in good health, and the line-up features movies from 34 countries, spanning a wonderfully diverse range of themes and styles. There are eight special seasons, some showcasing the output of different countries and regions - Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Asia, and the US independent sector as it undergoes another stimulating regeneration. The hard part of the selection process was the necessity to reject dozens of submitted films.

The subject of the festival retrospective - following on from Claire Denis in 2003 and Julio Medem last year - is the gifted Italian director Gianni Amelio, whose work has been shamefully overlooked for distribution here. We will redress that imbalance by screening six of his films, and we are very pleased that Signor Amelio will attend the festival and participate in a public interview.

The driving philosophy of the festival is to transcend the experience of just another day or night out at the movies. The key to this is for us to bring as many filmmakers and actors as possible to the event, to introduce their screenings and to participate in discussions with the audience afterwards.

One of the liveliest discussions this year is likely to be that following the festival's Irish première of the controversial 9 Songs, which will be attended by its director Michael Winterbottom and the male lead, Kieran O'Brien. The film has been the subject of heated debate here in recent months, since it was passed uncut by film censor John Kelleher, but hardly any of those participating in the debate has had an opportunity to see the film - until now.

Film festivals are all about choice, and anyone not interested in seeing 9 Songs will have two strong alternatives in the German drama, Head On, which took first prize at the Berlin festival last year, and Uno, the directing début of the young Norwegian actor, Aksel Hennie.

The downside of all that choice is that there are so many difficult scheduling clashes on the programme, but then again, this offers every member of the audience the option of designing his or her own individual festival. Some will see just a handful of films, while others will take time off, buy a season ticket and immerse themselves in the festival for its 10 days and nights. There really is something for everyone in the audience.

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