Festival to honour man behind Cal

THE Irish director, Pat O'Connor, will be the subject of the tribute programme at the ACCBank 12th Dublin Film Festival, which…

THE Irish director, Pat O'Connor, will be the subject of the tribute programme at the ACCBank 12th Dublin Film Festival, which runs from March 4th to 13th. The festival's closing film will be the world premiere of O'Connor's latest movie, Inventing The Abbotts, which is based on a short story by Sue Miller and set in a small Illinois town in the 1950s. The cast includes Liv Tyler, Billy Crudup and Joaquin Phoenix.

All seven feature films directed by Pat O'Connor will be shown during the festival, among them Cal, A Month In The Country and Circle Of Friends, and a screening of his award winning television film, The Ballroom Of Romance, will be followed by a public interview with him on the morning of March 13th.

The many new Irish feature films scheduled by the festival include Elizabeth Gill's Gold In The Streets, produced by Noel Pearson and featuring Ian Hart and Jared Harris; Drinking Crude, the first feature from Tralee director Owen McPolin and starring Andrew Scott; Gillies MacKinnon's film of Billy Roche's screenplay, Trojan Eddie, with Stephen Rea and Richard Harris the John T. Davis documentary, The Uncle Jack; the Cork Film Festival hit, November Afternoon; the Irish Italian co production, Spaghetti Slow; and the risible prisoners of war yarn, The Brylcreem Boys, set in Ireland but shot in the Isle of Man and starring Gabriel Byrne and Riverdance diva Jean Butler.

Advance booking for season ticket purchasers opens at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at 13, Trinity Street (off Dame Street), Dublin 2, and regular booking opens on Wednesday.