News

The London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff), the capital’s premier celebration of East Asian cinema and culture, proudly returns for its 9th edition, launching on 23rd October 2024 at the iconic Odeon Luxe Leicester Square with the UK premiere of Escape, a gripping drama by acclaimed director Lee Jong-Pil. The festival will run until 3rd November 2024, culminating in the highly anticipated world premiere of the Hong Kong feature, Little Red Sweet.

This year’s programme promises an extraordinary showcase of cinematic gems from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Philippines, all woven around the powerful theme of survival, resilience, and aspiration. Through the visionary lens of East Asia’s most talented filmmakers, Leaff invites audiences to experience profound and thought-provoking stories that offer unique insight into the region’s rich cultural tapestry.

With over 20 UK and world premieres, Leaff will captivate audiences at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and the Cinema at Selfridges,...

The awards ceremony of the 14th Taiwan International Documentary Festival (Tidf) took place on May 16. 42 nominated films in the Asian Vision Competition, International Competition, Taiwan Competition and 14 works shortlisted for the Tidf Visionary Award, an award for promoting sinophone documentaries, competed for 11 awards.

The Programme Director Wood Lin says this is his 7th time participating in Tidf's programming since 2010, and a persistent self-pursuit for incarnating the spirit of documentary through curating has made each version more challenging than imagined. He also thanks all the filmmakers at the ceremony for devoting their lives to and fully engaging in filmmaking; their works are wonderful gifts that introduce the complexity and beauty of the world to the audience in Taiwan. He then quoted this year's Outstanding Contribution Award recipient, Chang Chao-tang: “We exist, because people who remember us”, saying that Tidf also exists because all who participate, remembers it.

K-Family Affairs

In Taman-taman (Park) directed by So Yo-hen,...

The Taiwan International Documentary Festival (Tidf), organized by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (Tfai), scheduled for May 10-19, 2024, has unveiled its Focus Programme titled “Metaphors of the Times: The Reality Named Myanmar.” This segment will showcase 26 cross-genre films from Myanmar, spanning mood diaries, frontline documentaries, futuristic fantasies, audio-visual experiments, and more. These works capture real-world situations or articulate inner experiences, collectively portraying Myanmar's distinctive reality. Selected films include IDFA selection, The Clinic by Midi Z, Midwives, the winner of Special Jury Award at the 2022 Sundance Ff, and Ten Years Myanmar screened at the 2023 Busan Iff.

The independent film scene in Myanmar has been closely linked to the country's democratic development, where visual storytelling not only serves as a means of recording reality, but also provides a medium for filmmakers to voice their perspectives. Despite facing substantial challenges such as military coups and film censorship, Myanmar has steadily fostered a...

While the concept of the docudrama is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in festival circles, it is good to remember that Midi Z has been shooting films that top the category since 2016 and “City of Jade” and “Road to Mandalay”. His prowess in shooting documentaries in a way that they look like dramas continues with another captivating story in “The Clinic”.

The Clinic is screening at Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program

In Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, a doctor-couple, Aung Ming and San San Oo, operate a neighborhood clinic, providing low-cost treatments and therapies for a wide variety of ailments, mostly ailing alcoholics, drug addicts, and in general people who live on the edge of society. The initial scene, where Aung Ming treats a chronic alcoholic who has left a wound in his wound fester so much that it has filled with worms and the leg needs to be cut,...

Exclusive: Impression Entertainment has signed Gloria Obianyo, an actress seen in everything from Dune and the latest Mission: Impossible to Amazon’s Good Omens, for management.

Most recently seen recurring opposite David Tennant and Michael Sheen on Good Omens, in the role of the archangel Uriel, Obianyo around the same time recurred in the seventh season of Starz’s hit historical fantasy series Outlander.

Seen in recent tentpoles Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Dune, Obianyo prior to that made a splash on the film side in A24′ sci-f horror High Life, marking the English-language debut of renowned French filmmaker Claire Denis, which had her starring alongside Robert Pattinson and Mia Goth.

Currently wrapping up a critically acclaimed run in a Yael Farber-directed production of King Lear at The Almeida Theatre in London, Obianyo has also been seen in such Almeida productions as The Clinic and Next Please: The Keyworkers Cycle.

The annual Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Festival has given IndieWire an exclusive “first look” at the lineup.

The 13th annual event, which takes place March 13 through 17 in Astoria, Queens, opens with the New York premiere of Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo,” which recently took home the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

The First Look Festival focuses on emerging talents and international voices, with the fest premiering 46 works, including 20 features that represent 21 countries. Highlights include Farhad Delaram’s “Achilles,” Graham Swon’s “An Evening Song (for three voices), and the U.S. premiere of Lois Patiño’s “Samsara.” Zhang Mengqi’s “Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020,” which won the Award of Excellence winner at the 2023 Yamagata Documentary Festival, will also screen along with Shoghakat Vardanyan’s 2023 IDFA grand prize winner “1489,” the debut for the filmmaker. Returning First Look directors like Michaël Andrianaly...

Midi Z, the Taiwan-based Myanmar-born director whose career has expanded from no-budget documentaries and dramas to 2019 Cannes title “Nina Wu,” has wrapped “The Unseen Sister,” his first mainstream film in Mainland China.

As with “Nina Wu,” the protagonist is an actress successfully enduring various pressures and humiliations at work. But in “Unseen Sister” her artifice is threatened by an anonymous attempt to extort her and the sudden reappearance of her long-lost sister. The sister, who had been in Myanmar, brings with her incidents and revelations from the past as well as hints of a larger crisis linking the seemingly coincidental events of her return and the blackmail.

For the dual lead roles Z secured the services of rising Chinese actor Zhao Liying in the role of the actress and Xin Zhilei (“The Rescue” and Wong Kar-wai’s TV series “Blossoms Shanghai”) as her sister.

Production, which wrapped earlier this month,...

Documentary’s gatekeepers are playing it awfully safe lately, in the estimation of Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s largest documentary film festival.

In conversation with Deadline before the start of the 36th edition of the festival, Nyrabia assessed the landscape of nonfiction film, finding streaming platforms and other distributors inordinately risk averse.

“I think post pandemic especially, it seems like everybody in the distribution space is really striving to make up lost money,” he told Deadline. “And this is translating into really only betting on very, very clearly winning horses. So, everybody is looking for films with preexisting IP. I mean, they don’t say so. But when I look at what it is that is really working [for them], it is all about celebrities who have their audience predefined, and when that’s not possible, then relying on preset formats such as serial killers and crime.

This year’s edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will open with the world premiere of “A Picture to Remember” by Olga Chernykh. The film, which received the support of the IDFA Bertha Fund in 2022, is a deeply personal account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women.

The full program for the festival’s 36th edition was announced earlier today by IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, who stated the festival’s opening film is “both personal and political,” adding that “the director does not shy away from trying to build a cinematic world with fragile elements. The courage and originality of the film’s approach opens up to a much larger worldview.”

Before announcing this year’s full lineup, Nyrabia took a moment to acknowledge the current Israel-Hamas war: “To us, respecting the human...

Olga Chernykh’s A Picture To Remember explores the war in Ukraine through three generations.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will open with the world premiere of Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh’s A Picture To Remember as the festival unveils the line-ups for the international and Envision competitions.

A Picture To Remember explores the war in Ukraine through three generations of women, including the director herself, and is a co-production between Ukraine, France and Germany. The film is screening in Envision and has received backing from the IDFA Bertha Support fund.

The international competition features 11 titles, seven of which are world premieres,...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam revealed its opening night film and announced competition lineups in two main categories today, completing the program for the upcoming 36th edition of the world’s largest documentary festival.

At a press conference in Amsterdam, A Picture to Remember, directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Chernykh, was announced as IDFA’s opening night film on November 8. The festival, which includes more than 250 films total, runs from Nov. 8-19.

“[A Picture to Remember] presents a deeply personal and essay-style account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women: Chernykh herself, her mother, and her grandmother,” IDFA said in a release. “In a bid for connection and intimacy, the filmmaker uses old family films, recordings of conversations, and news reports to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother. The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film that travels through time fluidly.

Saoirse Una Ronan is an American-Irish actress. She is best known for her distinct roles in period dramas since adolescence and has received numerous prestigious accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and five British Academy Film Awards.

Saoirse Ronan Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Saoirse Ronan was born on April 12, 1994 (Saorise Ronan’s age 29) in the Bronx, New York to Monica and Paul Ronan. She is an only child of her Irish parents, who are both originally from Dublin. Her father was employed in construction and was bartending before training as an actor in New York, while her mother worked as a nanny and acted when she was younger.

Initially, Ronan’s parents were undocumented immigrants who had fled from Ireland as a result of the recession in the 1980s, and they struggled financially during their time spent in New York.

New Direction

One Direction star Niall Horan is set to cameo on rail-themed Channel 4 digital series, “Trainspotting with Francis Bourgeois.”

Produced by Untold Studios, the series sees TikTok creator Bourgeois introduce celebrities to the obscure hobby.

Horan will join Bourgeois for a “day of locomotive escapades” starting at Liverpool Street Station in London – but will a series of train cancelations and delays scupper their plans?

During the episode, which is available from June 14 on Channel 4’s YouTube, Horan reveals a very personal connection to trains, telling Bourgeois that his grandfather was a train driver. Movie buffs will also be thrilled to discover Horan’s grandfather drove the train in “The Great Train Robbery.”

Series Lab Dana Blankstein-Cohen

The second edition of the Sam Spiegel Series Lab, which was established last year by the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, with the support of Netflix, and artistic consultancy of Hagai Levi...

Exclusive: Ron Ninio, executive producer of Showtime drama Your Honor, is lining up an espionage drama as his next series.

Ninio has teamed with journalist and doc maker Amir Oren and Sharon Bar-Ziv to create The Clinic, we can reveal. Your Honor exec Rob Golenberg is producing and Israeli network Reshet/Channel 13 is already attached.

Ninio is “fast-tracking” the show’s development and wants it to be a co-production with an American partner.

Based on real characters and events, The Clinic follows top New York surgeon Dr. Steven Neuman, who moonlights as an assassin. Having served in the Israeli Navy as a commando, he returns to the States to run a practice but when Mossad and the FBI catch a plot to overthrow the U.S. government, they send him to use his medical expertise to kill.

“Dr. Steven Neuman has a constant conflict between his...

Each of the 12 finalists in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival 2020 faced creative, emotional and logistical challenges. Some found it difficult to separate themselves from their subject matter. Others, despite the best planning, ran into unforeseen production issues that required quick decisions.

In a Zoom conversation with TheWrap Awards Editor Steve Pond, the diverse group of filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad discussed the work that went into their shorts — which ranged from animation to scripted stories to documentaries.

Barbara Attie, who along Janet Goldwater and Mike Attie chronicled the workers at an abortion helpline in “Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa” talked about how emotionally difficult shooting would be. “Every time we would leave a shoot we would all be like feeling devastated at what our subjects were going through,” the documentarian said. The subjects would often be young women who needed to get hundreds or thousands of dollars in...

Filmmaker Elivia Shaw is often inspired by spaces that act as a microcosm for our larger cultural issues. In the case of “The Clinic,” a finalist in this year’s ShortList Film Festival, she found inspiration from a doctor who works on Saturdays aboard a dingy bus in Fresno, California, and provides clean needles and free medical care to IV drugs users. She used this setting to shoot the film as an allegory on the failure of the health-care system.

“I wanted to make a film about the way our health-care system has failed most of us, especially those who are most vulnerable,” Shaw told TheWrap. “The Clinic” centers on the work of Dr. Marc Lasher and his volunteers inside a mobile clinic who try to help drug addicts without passing judgment.

“I read about Dr. Lasher in a local paper and saw him as someone taking this issue into...

TheWrap on Thursday announced the 12 finalists for the ninth annual ShortList Film Festival, including stories from around the world about abortion, gender-identity, gentrification, bullying, opioids and a garbage man who lives alone on an asteroid.

Online viewing and voting launches today on ShortListFilmFestival.com and runs through August 19. The jury will award the Industry Award while TheWrap’s online voters will determine the Audience Award and Student Award. The winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony on August 20.

This year’s selected films have won awards at festivals including SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, AFI Fest, Miami Film Festival and Brooklyn Film Festival. The films and filmmakers come from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and Macedonia.

In addition to the lineup of festival winners, the ShortList Film Festival also features up-and-coming filmmakers from top film schools across the country. The...

Exclusive: Irish producer ShinAwiL has launched a drama division and has set a slate that includes a crime drama from Ballykissangel writer Barry Devlin, a period drama from author Ann-Marie Casey and a tween Canadian co-pro.

The company, which is best known for producing Irish versions of unscripted hits such as Dancing with the Stars and The Voice, has tapped Vikings and The Borgias producer Aaron Farrell to run the unit with Mary Callery, former commissioning editor of drama at Irish public broadcaster Rte.

ShinAwiL is launching its inaugural scripted slate ahead of Series Mania in Lille, France, where it will talk with broadcasters and production partners about its projects.

Kill is a six-part contemporary crime drama written by Devlin, who produced a number of music videos for U2 in the 1980s and has written episodes of The Darling Buds of May, PBS and BBC co-pro My Mother and Other Strangers...

Since we forgot to celebrate Saint Patricks Day and since Brooklyn is fresh on DVD, let's talk everyone's favorite current Irish lass! Saoirse Ronan is only 21 years old (she turns 22 next month) but she's already logged over a decade of work having started as a child in a Irish television series called "The Clinic". Her first movie role was as Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter in the romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman shot in 2005 though it took along time to emerge due to behind the scenes studio and distribution dramas. Her breakthrough Oscar-nominated performance in Atonement (2007) quickly followed. She's now ascended to a real movie star with her warm engaging film-carrying work in Brooklyn (2015).

Let's repeat a bit of Oscar trivia since it's quite impressive and important: Saoirse Ronan (nominated at 13 and 21) is only the 4th child star in history to received an Oscar nomination before and after...

Extending from 1914 to 1920, the first series of epic new series The Village written by Peter Moffat comes to BBC One Sunday 31st March at 9pm.

The series stars John Simm and Maxine Peake as impoverished, alcoholic Peak District farmer John Middleton and his wife, Grace.

13-year-old newcomer Bill Jones, a member of the Nottingham-based Television Workshop, stars as young Bert Middleton, whose long life is central to the anticipated on-going serial. Bert is growing up in extreme poverty on a family farm in Derbyshire. He is twelve years old at the start of the series, and his days are filled with school, his friends, working in the fields with his father and secret swimming lessons with his brother Joe, whom he adores. Young Bert, like his brother, falls in love with new arrival Martha Lane the moment she arrives in the village. He is very confused as he watches the...

You’ve seen him as Sir Gwaine in the BBC’s TV series Merlin, now Eoin Macken steps behind the camera to direct The Inside, featuring Czech starlet Tereza Srbova (Sirens, Eastern Promises) alongside the cream of Irish acting talent that includes Emmett J. Scanlan (Hollyoaks, Charlie Casanova), Sean Stewart (Occi, Coward), Natalia Kostrzewa (The Clinic) and Brian Fortune (Game of Thrones).

While in a pawnshop a young man comes into possession of a second hand video camera; discovering a tape still inside he plays back the footage and witnesses a horrific series of events involving a group of teens in an undisclosed location. Using the footage as a guide he retraces the steps to where the events seemingly occurred. Deciding to investigate he discovers to his horror not only the truth of the events on the tape but comes face to face with a supernatural terror from which he may not escape…...

Irish feature film 'The Inside' will receive its world premiere at Film4's Frightfest on August 26 in London. The psychological horror is one of three Irish films screening at the UK festival with Conor McMahon's 'Stitches' and Jon Wright's 'Grabbers' also set to be shown. 'The Inside' marks actor and cinematographer Eoin Macken's feature film directorial debut and stars 'Charlie Casanova' actor Emmett J. Scanlan and Czech actress Tereza Srbova (St. Trinian's). In addition to Dublin-born Scanlan, a number of Irish actors star, including Karl Argue (Where the Sea Used to be), Kellie Blaise (The Borgias), Siobhan Cullen (The Clinic), Brian Fortune (Game of Thrones), Sean Stewart (Swan Song: Story of Occi Byrne) and Liam Heffron also feature. Jen Moynan provided the costumes on set, while Nadai Macari was the makeup artist.

We've updated our Film4 Fright Fest line-up story with tons of images. Read on to see what you may have missed and what's brand spanking new! Dig it!

Programme - Screen 1

Thursday Aug 23

Opening Film - The Seasoning House (World Premiere)

Special make-up prosthetics and splatter genius Paul Hyett makes his directorial debut with a harrowing exploration into tense claustrophobia, hard-hitting action and rollercoaster suspense. In a Balkan brothel, where girls kidnapped by soldiers in war-torn zones are prostituted to the military and civilians alike, Angel (Robin Day) is the deaf mute orphan enslaved to care for the inmates. But unbeknownst to her captors, she moves between the walls and crawlspaces of the seasoning house planning her escape. Psychological horror in the nerve-shredding Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski style but with an ultra-modern twist.

89 mins Director: Paul Hyett UK 2012

Rosie Day – Angel

Sean Pertwee – Goran

Kevin Howarth – Viktor

David Lemberg...

Irish actors Jim Norton (Fr Ted), Leigh Arnold (The Clinic), Nora-Jane Noone (The Magdalene Sisters), Conor Mullen (Rough Diamond), Vincent Walsh (A Kiss For Jed) and Helen Roche (Roy) are heading up the cast of new €1.2m drama series 'Deception,' which is currently shooting in Galway. The six-part series – formerly reported under the working title 'Tailor's Hill' – began production last Monday (June 18) in Spiddal and will shoot for four weeks in total.

Irish actor, Emmett Scanlan walked away with the Best Film Actor Award at the recent Ecu European Independent Film Festival for his performance in Independent Irish feature, 'Charlie Casanova'. Written, produced and directed by Terry McMahon, Charlie Casanova had its European Premiere in Paris where it was the only Irish film selected for the Best European Dramatic Feature competition and Emmett Scanlan is the first Irish actor to win this award. The film stars Emmett Scanlan (Hollyoaks, The Guards), Leigh Arnold (The Clinic), Damien Hannaway (The Guards), Ruth McIntyre (Shackled), Tony Murphy, Valeria Bandino (The Doppleganger) and Johnny Elliott.

Irish feature, 'Charlie Casanova', independently produced, written and directed by Terry McMahon is to have its European premiere at the ÉCU European Independent Film Festival. The event will showcase 77 films from 26 countries from 1 - 3 April in Paris. The film, which has now received funding from the Irish Film Board, stars Emmett Scanlan (The Guards), Leigh Arnold (The Clinic), Damien Hannaway (The Guards), Ruth McIntyre (Shackled), Tony Murphy, Valeria Bandino (The Doppleganger) and Johnny Elliott.

Northern Irish actor, James Nesbitt (Outcast, Cold Feet) and Dubliner Aidan Turner (Being Human, The Clinic) have joined the ensemble cast of upcoming epic films, 'The Hobbit'. James Nesbitt, a BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee and Ifta winning actor will play Bofur, a disarmingly forthright, funny and occasionally brave Dwarf in the two features; whilst Aidan Turner will play a young dwarf called Kili.

Windmill Lane are posting two feature projects for Parallel Films. 'The Other Side' and 'Roadkill', are being made for the Syfy channel, both filmed in Ireland during summer 2010 and are currently in the hands of Windmill's VFX team. Gráinne Gavigan (The Clinic) 'The Other Side' which is directed by BAFTA nominee, Billy O'Brien (The Tale of the Rat that Wrote) and stars Joe Flanigan (The Other Sister) and John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark). 'Roadkill' is directed by Johannes Roberts (Hellbreeder) and produced by Adrian Sturges. Starring Kacey Barnfield (Resident Evil: Afterlife) and Irish actor Stephen Rea (Ondine).

Irish audiences were introduced to Robert Sheehan in the harrowing Irish feature, 'Song for a Raggy Boy'. Following this a constant flow of acting work started and has rarely let up since. Roles in feature films such as 'Summer of the Flying Saucer', 'Red Riding' and 'Cherrybomb' along with dozens of television series including 'Foreign Exchange', 'The Clinic', 'Bitter Sweet' and E4's ongoing 'Misfits' have kept the Portlaoise export very firmly in the public psyche. Iftn spoke with him about getting in touch with his animal instincts, taking part in a very enjoyable casting session and looking for Ivan McCormick's twitch.

Production is currently underway on the third series of Dublin restaurant drama, 'Raw'. The Ecosse Film/Octagon Films co-production started shooting at the end of August and cameras will continue rolling until the end of November. The third installment of the drama sees the return of Ifta winner Charlene McKenna (Whistleblower), Aisling O’Sullivan (The Clinic), Keith McErlean (Bachelors' Walk) and Ger Ryan (Whistleblower; Family) alongside cast newcomers Padraic Delaney (Perrier’s Bounty) and Marcella Plunkett (Once).

There's no question the BBC's "Being Human" is one of the best bits of horror TV you can find out there right now, and in honor of this week's DVD and Blu-ray release of Season Two, we have a look at one of the box set's behind-the-scenes features!

From the Press Release

This September 21st the BBC is unleashing to DVD and Blu-ray the second season of the hit BBC America supernatural drama – Being Human. Premiering on BBC America July 24, the new season marks the return of Russell Tovey (Little Dorrit, Gavin & Stacey), Lenora Crichlow (Sugar Rush, The Bill) and Aidan Turner (Desperate Romantics, The Clinic) as three twenty-somethings living double lives as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. The second season picks up after the defeat of vampire leader Herrick with the trio trying to re-enter the human world, only to discover that there are new enemies and dangers lurking at every turn.

Element pictures are currently putting the finishing touches to two new feature films - 'Essence of Killing', starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner, is currently in post production in Ardmore Sound and Alicia Duffy's 'All Good Children' will have its World Premiere next month at Cannes' Director's Fortnight. British director Alicia Duffy's first feature, 'All Good Children', will have its World Premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Realisateurs). The film stars young Irish actor Jack Gleeson (Batman Begins) and David Wilmot (Intermission, The Clinic) and tells the story of Dara, played by Gleeson, a young Irish boy who is moved to rural France with his brother Eoin after the death of their mother.

Monday, April 19th will see the broadcast of Green Inc Television's new comedy sketch show pilot for Channel 4, 'iCandy'. The pilot is written by and stars Liam Hourican (actor, The Secret of Kells) and features an all-Irish cast including 'The Clinic' star Amy Huberman, 'The Tudors' Jim Roche and 'Best: His Mother's Son' actress, Laura Donnelly. The pilot was written by Liam Hourican, David Crann (Ape) and David Stone and features Hourican playing original characters, including a Dutch mountaineer with a taste for human flesh and a TV lifecoach with a murky past. Outlandish impressions of well-known personalities also feature, including 'When Louis Theroux Met Hitler' and 'Peter Stringfellow's Community Outreach Programme for teenagers'.

Colin O'Donoghue is set to star opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Rite . The actor's credits include The Tudors , The Clinic and various other television projects. 1408 helmer Mikael Hafstrom will direct the film. Adapted from a book by Matt Baglio and based on true events, the story centers on a disillusioned American seminary student who attends exorcism school at the Vatican and ultimately finds his faith through encounters with demonic forces.

Irish actor Colin O'Donoghue ("The Tudors," "The Clinic") has joined the cast of the exorcism feature "The Rite" for New Line says Variety.

Based on the novel by Matt Baglio, the film follows a young American seminary student who has a crisis of faith but ultimately re-finds it after attending a Vatican exorcism school and encountering demonic forces.

Anthony Hopkins will play a mentor style character, an unorthodox priest and expert in exorcisms.

Mikael Hafstrom directs from a script by Michael Petroni. Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce.

The popular British fantasy-drama Being Human is currently airing a second season and heading into a third season in the UK. The good news for fans in the Us is that all three seasons have been picked up for broadcast in America. BBC America will air both Season 2 and Season 3, the cable network has announced. It broadcast Season 1 in July 2009.

Being Human stars Russell Tovey (Little Dorrit, Doctor Who, The History Boys), Lenora Crichlow (Sugar Rush, Doctor Who, Kiss Of Death) and Aidan Turner (The Clinic) as housemates trying to live normal lives despite the fact that they are a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. The show started life as a pilot on BBC Three in the UK. This proved to be such a hit among viewers and critics that it was commissioned as a six-part series.

"Being Human uniquely combines the drama and complexity of ordinary life with...

Saoirse Ronan stole the film in Atonement, and now she's at it again with The Lovely Bones. Not bad for a 15-year-old who likes to hang out with her family dog and eat crisps

Saoirse Ronan turned 15 last April and runs on a different clock from the rest of us. She says she's glad she didn't start acting young, because it might have screwed her up and burnt her out. It's not as if she began acting at, say, three or something. She waited ­until she was eight, which was more sensible, because when you reach "our age" (she includes me in this) you at least know what you're doing, and in any case, things didn't start getting weird until a few years ago, with the Oscar nomination. "So I'm glad I'm only really starting now," she says firmly. "Because it means I can be seen as an actor as opposed to a child ­actor.

London -- Neil Jordan's "Ondine" and "The Eclipse," directed by Conor McPherson lead the pack with eight nominations apiece in the race for film glory at the upcoming 7th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards.

Both Jordan and McPherson will battle it out to win the evening's top director nod while the movies themselves find themselves vying with one another in the best film category.

The pair face John and Kieran Carney ("Zonad") and Jim Sheridan ("Brothers") in the best film director section while "Eamon," "The Secret of Kells" and "Zonad" all present a challenge to "Ondine" and "The Eclipse" in the best film category.

Dished out by the Irish Film and Television Academy at a ceremony in Dublin next month, the IFTAs serve as a timely reminder of the wealth of talent from the emerald isle. Nominees this year include newcomer Darren Healy alongside Colin Farrell, Ciaran Hinds,...

'Happy Ever Afters', the debut feature film from writer and director Stephen Burke (Anner House, No Tears) comes down the aisle on December 26th with the premise that sometimes the happiest day of all can be the most heartbreaking. Iftn chats to Burke and two of the film's stars Tom Riley and Jade Yourell. The film's plot is anything but straightforward: Freddie, played by Tom Riley (Lost in Austen, St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold) and Maura, played by Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, An Education) are getting married, just not to each other. While Freddie is entering his second marriage with the neurotic Sophie, played by Jade Yourell (Waiting for Dublin, The Longest Day), Maura's is more concerned with her pockets than her heart in marrying 'Doctors' star, Ariyon Bakare's Wilson. Then, when the two wedding parties end up at the same reception venue,...

Scriptwriters Enda Walsh and Frank Deasy were amongst the recipients of the 2009 ZeBBies – which were announced last night (Thursday, 26th November) in Dublin. Ifta Nominee Enda Walsh was selected in the Film Script category for 'Hunger'. Lance Daly's 'Kisses' and Mark Doherty's 'A Film With Me In It' were also shortlisted. Emmy winner and BAFTA nominee Frank Deasy's script for the first episode of 'Father and Son' received the honours in the category of TV Script. Deasy's script had been up against Lisa McGee for her work on the second episode of 'Raw' and Peter McKenna's script for first episode of the sixth series of 'The Clinic'.

The short-list for the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild 2009 ZeBBies has been announced. Created by the and named in honour of 'Grapes of Wrath' actor O. Z. Whitehead, the accolade acknowledges script(s) written by Irish playwrights and screenwriters during the previous year. This year sees the following scriptwriters being nominated in the category of Television; Frank Deasy for episode 1 of 'Father and Son'; Lisa McGee for the second episode of 'Raw' and Peter McKenna for the first episode of the sixth series of 'The Clinic'.

Principal photography for a new Irish comedy thriller, 'The Guard', has commenced in Spiddal, Co. Galway. The feature is written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly) and stars Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm) and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda). Announced today by Martin Cullen Td, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, the film sees Emmy winner Brendan Gleeson playing an unorthodox Irish policeman who joins forces with Don Cheadle's straitlaced FBI agent in a bid to take on an international drug-smuggling gang. Other Irish acting talents featured includes Ifta winners Liam Cunningham (Hunger), Fionnula Flanagan (Lost, Transamerica), Pat Shortt (Garage) and David Wilmot (Intermission, The Clinic). Director of photography for the project is Larry Smith (Eyes Wide Shut) and production designer is John-Paul Kelly (Venus). 'The Guard's costume designer is Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh (Brideshead Revisted) and the film's editor is Chris Gill (28 Days Later).

Grand Pictures, in association with Park Films, are to release 'Situations Vacant' on digital only format in cinemas across the country on Friday, December 4th. The feature length Irish comedy is a humorous examination of job-hunting in contemporary Ireland. The film was written by Dubliner Steven Murray, produced by Anne Marie Naughton (Tara Road) and stars Diarmuid Noyes (Five Minutes of Heaven), Sam Corry (The Clinic), Shaun Dunne (Hoodies), Mary Murray (Eamon), stage actress Julie O'Halloran and Lorna Dempsey (Fairycatcher).

Shooting is underway on Venom's new short film 'Rosslare to Roscoff' directed by Ken Wardrop (The Herd) which is expected to be released early next year. The crew are currently shooting on location in France. The 12 minute project tells the tale of Gayle, a 29-year-old single mother, who has been coming to terms with her life since suffering a brain injury which has left her with an inability to produce language. Her relationship with Luc, her headstrong six-year-old son, has become increasingly difficult. 'Rosslare to Roscoff' concentrates on Gayle's failed attempt to introduce her son to his father. Director of photography for the short film is Kate McCullough (Sunshower) and the shoot is expected to wrap on Saturday, October 31st. The project's editor is Ken Wardrop. The short film features actress Lesley Conroy (Eden, The Clinic) in the lead role of 'Gayle'...

Principal Photography of new feature film 'As If I'm Not There' is set to commence on 5 October. The film, adapted and to be directed by Juanita Wilson is her feature film debut. An Irish/Macedonian/Swedish co-production involving Octagon Films (Ireland), Sektor Films (Macedonia) and Stella Nova Films (Sweden) and based on the acclaimed novel by Slavenka Drakulic, the film will be produced by James Flynn (Octagon Films) and Nathalie Lichtenthaeler (Wide Eye Films) and co-produced by Vladimir Anastasov (Sektor Films) and Lena Rehnburg (Stella Nova Films). Shooting in Macedonia will commence on Monday, the 5th October with Tim Fleming (Once) as the director of photography. The film will star Fedja Stukan and Natasa Petrovic and is set in Bosnia during the 1990's Balkan Conflict. The line producer of the film is Karen Richards, whose production manager credits include 'The Tudors' and 'Fifty Dead Men Walking',...

A new Irish feature 'Snap' is set to commence principal photography this week in Co. Cork. 'Snap' is the debut feature film from writer/director Carmel Winters and stars award winning Irish actress Eileen Walsh (Eden, Pure Mule) and Aisling O'Sullivan (The Clinic). Produced by Martina Niland (Once) in Samson Films and co-produced by Cathleen Dore, 'Snap' is funded by Bord Scannán na hEireann/the Irish Film Board (Ifb), ScreenScene, Accomplice TV and Section 481.

Series seven of 'The Clinic' has finished principal photography in Dublin. The award winning Irish drama which has been running on Rte has seen a wealth of Irish acting talent appear on our screens throughout the years with some new faces joining the latest series. Directed by Declan Eames, Janet Traynor, Lisa Mulcahy and Charlie McCarthy, the series was produced by Jonathon Curling (Holy Cross, Falling For a Dancer) for Parallel Films. This latest eight episode series sees the regular faces of Amy Huberman (Daisy), Dominic Mafham (Dan), Leigh Arnold (Clodagh) Tanya Moodie (Grace Safete) and Gary Lydon (Patrick) return to our screens. Also joining the cast this year is Victoria Smurfit (Trial & Retribution) who will play Edel.

A new two part special of Rte's 2005 hit drama, 'Pure Mule', has started shooting in-and-around Birr Co. Offaly. Produced by Accomplice Television 'Pure Mule: The Last Weekend' will come to our screens this autumn. 'Pure Mule' is written by Eugene O'Brien, directed by Declan Recks, produced by David Collins, Peter Norris and exec produced by Ed Guiney. Featuring a cast of Irish actors including Charlene Mc Kenna (Raw, Whistleblower), Garrett Lombard (Rough Diamond, Love Is A Drug), Dawn Bradfield (The Clinic), Gail Fitzpatrick (Strength and Honour), Orla Fitzgerald (The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Liam Carney (Speed Dating) and many more besides, the original series gained critical and commercial success when the final episode of the first series culminated with an audience of 437,000. New faces joining the cast will be J.J Feild (Blood The Last Vampire, Goal) and Diarmuid Noynes (Five Minutes of Heaven, Prosperity)...

On Saturday, July 25th beginning at 9:00 p.m. Et/Pt, BBC America kicks off the new series Being Human which looks into the lives of three twenty-somethings and their secret double-lives as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. Dr. Who 's Russell Tovey and Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner ( The Clinic ) star as housemates trying to live normal lives, despite their strange and dark secrets. George (Russell Tovey) and Mitchell (Aidan Turner) work in anonymous drudgery as hospital porters. They lead lives of quiet desperation under the burden of a terrible secret: Mitchell's a vampire and George a werewolf. Deciding to start life afresh and leave behind the dark side, they move into a house, only to find that Annie, the ghost of a woman killed in mysterious circumstances, haunts it....

The second series of the restaurant based drama 'Raw', produced by Octagon Films and Ecosse Films, is currently filming in and around Dublin and Wicklow. Actress Charlene McKenna, who won an Ifta for her role in the first series, chats to Iftn on what's in store for her character Jojo Harte. Series two of 'Raw' will continue to explore the heated and personal relationships that emerge between staff at a thriving Dublin restaurant. Actors Charlene McKenna (Pure Mule), Liam Garrigan (Holby City), Keith McErlean (Bachelor's Walk) and Damon Gameau (Razzle Dazzle) are all returning to the series with new cast to include 'The Clinic' actress Aisling O'Sullivan. Directors for the second series are David Caffrey (Divorcing Jack), Nick Renton (Little White Lie) and Simon Massey (Skins).