Movie buffs prepare for visual feast in the capital

Breakfast on Pluto star Cillian Murphy launched the programme for the fourth Jameson Dublin International Film Festival last night.

Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers was also at the 100-film programme at the extravagant new John M Keating venue on Dublin's Mary Street.

This year's festival, the biggest yet, offers an array of less commercial titles that may never receive mainstream release here and allows viewers to have a glance at some of the films nominated for Oscars earlier this week.

Tsotsi, from South Africa, and Paradise Now, a hugely controversial drama from the Palestinian Authority focusing on potential suicide bombers, have both been shortlisted in the best foreign film category. Transamerica and Capote, for which, respectively, Felicity Huffman and Philip Seymour Hoffman have received acting nods, will also be screened.

The festival begins with the premiere of a much anticipated Irish film, one of 10 such domestic features to be screened. Studs, Paul Mercier's version of his own football-themed play, will play at the Savoy and producer Fiach MacConghail, moonlighting from his day job as director of the Abbey Theatre, was at last night's launch.

Murphy, who had flown from London for the event, was full of praise for festival director Michael Dwyer, who is also film correspondent for The Irish Times.

"What makes this festival special is that it is put together by somebody with a genuine passion for film," he said. "It is there for the movie buff and that is what I consider myself. I just happen to be a buff who was lucky enough to get a job in the business."

The festival will feature numerous special events and an array of industry personalities will be turning up to support their movies.

Daniel Day Lewis and his director wife Rebecca Miller, whose collaboration, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, closes the festival, are due to attend, as are Julie Walters, Ralph Fiennes and, for movie fans with more robust tastes, Vinnie Jones.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival runs from February 17th until February 26th. The box office is situated in Filmbase, Curved Street, Dublin 2;

tel: 01-672 8861. Tickets can also be booked via the website: www.dubliniff.com