Monday 2nd February

Cork Film Festival Announces Major Short Film Event in 2005

Today at the Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival in France, Cork Film Festival director, Mick Hannigan announced Cork's intention to host a major international symposium dedicated to the short film in October 2005.

The Short Film Symposium will be the festival's major contribution to Cork's year as European Cultural Capital, 2005.

"It is our view that the short film is a critically neglected art form and the symposium is intended as an intervention to redress this neglect" said Hannigan.

The Symposium will bring together short film specialists, curators and programmers, filmmakers and film critics from across the world. Papers will be presented, formal discussions will be scheduled, a book on the short film will be launched and there will be a comprehensive programme of screenings.

Director of Cork 2005, John Kennedy stated, "This commitment to short film is a significant element in the programme for Cork 2005. We are very excited by the prospect of the richness and diversity that will be available to audiences here through the symposium and we attach a particular importance to the publication of the first book of its type on the short film. The Cork Film Festival's 50th anniversary looks set to become a showcase for short film, an area that has always been one of the festival's great strengths."

Later this year, the Cork festival will launch a search for one hundred great short films from throughout the history of cinema - from early silent film to contemporary digital work, encompassing narrative, abstract, experimental, animation, and other forms of the short.

According to Hannigan, "this will not be a poll but a consultation with experts and specialists on the short film and is intended to draw attention to what we consider to be superb examples of the form."

Visit www.cork2005.ie