Rebels on celluloid

Cork is gearing up for a week of premieres and parties as Ireland's longest-running film festival marks it's 53rd year with a bumper line-up, writes Michael Dwyer

DIRECTORS Terence Davies and Peter Greenaway will be among the guests as Ireland's longest-running film festival marks its 53rd year with a programme of new international cinema that ranges from Joel and Ethan Coen's comic Burn After Readingto Steve McQueen's award-winning Hunger, along with a wealth of Irish and international documentaries and short films. Here are some of the highlights.

OPENING AND CLOSING PRESENTATIONS

The festival opens on October 12th with Joel and Ethan Coen's entertaining screwball comedy Burn After Reading,starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich.

The closing film on October 19th is Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's moral drama The Silence of Lorna, in which a young Albanian (Arta Dobroshi) marries a drug addict (Jérémie Renier) to obtain permanent residence in France.

TERENCE DAVIES TRIBUTE

The festival will celebrate the distinctive work of accomplished English director Terence Davies, who won the Best Short Film prize at Cork in 1980 with one of his early films, Madonna and Child. The tribute programme will include all four of his narrative feature films - The House of Mirth, The Neon Bible, The Long Day Closesand his masterpiece, Distant Voices, Still Lives- along with his short films and the first Irish screening of his superb autobiographical documentary, Of Time and the City, widely admired at Cannes this year. Davies will discuss his work in a public interview that I will conduct at the festival on October 15th.

PETER GREENAWAY LECTURE

On October 16th, Peter Greenaway will give the inaugural lecture in an annual series to commemorate Donal Sheehan, the director of the Cork festival from 1990-93, who died in January. And Greenaway will introduce his latest film Nightwatching, featuring Martin Freeman as Rembrandt. The festival will show a making-of documentary entitled Rembrandt, J'Accuse.

DESPERATE OPTIMISTS

The Desperate Optimists duo of John Lawlor and Christine Molloy will present a programme of their Civic Life series of short films and their well-regarded first feature, the psychological thriller Helen, featuring Annie Townsend as a young loner whose life is changed after she agrees to play a missing girl in a police reconstruction.

NEW INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

The winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes this year, Steve McQueen's film Hungerdramatises the 1981 IRA hunger strike in the Maze prison and features Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands.

Clark Gregg's Chokeis a dark comedy based on Chuck Palahniuk's book, with Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston.

Antontello Grimaldi's emotional Italian drama Quiet Chaosfeatures director Nanni Moretti as a media executive caring for his daughter after the accidental death of his wife.

Jens Jonsson's Swedish drama The King of Ping Pongdeals with a bullied, overweight teen whose younger brother is a popular athlete. Kenny Glenaan's drama Summercharts the close friendship between two men (Robert Carlyle and Steve Evets) as one them is faced with a terminal illness.

Good Dick, an "anti-romantic comedy", is scripted and directed by Marianna Palka, who plays a troubled loner, with Jason Ritter as the video store clerk who falls for her.

Based on a Clive Barker story, The Midnight Meat Trainfeatures Bradley Cooper as a struggling photographer encouraged by an art gallery owner (Brooke Shields) to pursue darker themes and tangling with a serial killer (Vinnie Jones).

IRISH AND INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

The festival includes the premieres of seven new Irish documentaries, among them Seo Man, a profile of veteran Cork actor Niall Toibin; Hold the Passion, Ronan O'Leary's history of Dublin's Focus Theatre; and David Farrell: Elusive Moments, Donald Taylor Black's film on the respected Irish photographer.

Air India 182explores the background to the 1985 disaster in which a plane travelling from Montreal exploded off the coast of Ireland. Brides of Allahchronicles the experiences of seven women imprisoned for terrorist crimes in Israel. Pray the Devil Back to Hellis an award-winning picture of the peace movement formed by women in Liberia earlier this decade.

One Who Set Forth: Wim Wenders' Early Yearsfeatures an extended interview with the German director, illustrated with clips from his films. Former boxing champion Mike Tyson reflects frankly on his turbulent experiences, personal and professional, in James Toback's documentary Tyson.

Julian Jarrold's feature film of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, with Ben Whishaw and Matthew Goode, will have its first Irish screening as part of the festival's long-running gay and lesbian cinema season, Outlook. A central component of that strand will be "Mise Aerach", a retrospective of gay-themed Irish short films, followed by a panel discussion.

SPECIAL EVENTS

A tribute to British artist and film-maker Ian Breakwell, a regular supporter of the festival who died in 2005, will feature the world premiere of his final, deeply personal work, AD/BC(After Diagnosis, Before Cancer).

Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan ( Brick Lane, Red Road) will introduce a selection of his short films, music videos and commercials, along with presenting a workshop on cinematography. Toronto film-maker Tom Porter, known as "the king of Super 8", will introduce a selection from his prolific, eclectic output of more than 300 short films.

A season of New Arab Cinema will include six films. And a selection of Mexican short films will be showcased in four programmes during the festival.

• The box office is open from tomorrow at Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre, Patrick Street, Cork (021-42722263). See also www.corkfilmfest.org