Lights, camera, call to action: Saoirse Ronan opens festival for young film-makers

IT WAS lights, camera, action in Dublin last night as actor Saoirse Ronan opened a festival to help young people learn the tricks of the film trade.

The 17-year-old Oscar nominee hit the red carpet at Cineworld in Parnell Street to launch the Coca-Cola Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival, a week of events aimed at inspiring young people to get involved in film. Featuring events for four- to 24-year-olds, participants can look forward to workshops in TV and film acting, presenting, animation, writing for the screen and film journalism.

Those giving masterclasses include MTV host Laura Whitmore, Fair Cityactor Rachel Kavanagh, TV presenters Nuala Carey and Karen Koster and film make-up artist Maria Moore. Speaking before the first screening of the festival, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules, the young Carlow actor who got her first break aged nine on RTÉ's The Clinic said it was never too early to start learning about film.

“I started to work when I was a good bit younger and I would have loved to have been involved in a festival like this – and I still would. There is always something to learn about film. To go through workshops and things like that is terrific.”

The actor, nominated for an Oscar for her role in Atonementand a Bafta for The Lovely Bones, encouraged those keen to follow in her footsteps to get involved in the festival.

“You’re not quite sure how you are going to just fall into it so get into something like this, get into workshops, go to film festivals and just watch good films,” she said.

Having finished filming her latest movie Violet & Daisywith actor James Gandolfini, Ronan said the movie is due out later this year. "It was great, I shot it in New York and I was born there so it's like my second home, I love it there. It was a brilliant film to do."

Speaking about the festival, chief executive of the Cinemagic charity Joan Burney Keatings described the festival as “cross-border, cross-community and cross-continental”.

“We give young people an insight into the industry. Not every child is academic at school and if you’re not academic it’s so hard to find out what you are good at. We give young people a platform to find out what it’s like to be an actor, a director, a cinematographer, a film journalist.”

Louis Maxwell (11) from Drumcondra, hovering behind the velvet rope to catch a glimpse of Ronan, said, “I’m interested in film. I want to be a director.”

Having signed up for an animation workshop on Monday, he said: “I want to learn how to make better storyboards and get better at drawing and do a cartoon and a film. I just think it’s interesting how you can use the camera to capture all those images.”