Inaugural Athy Film Festival thrives

IT looks like the inaugural Athy Film Festival was a huge success, with five of the 10 featured films shown over the weekend (17-19 January) selling out, meaning a return for a second Festival next year is looking very likely.

“It was very well attended,” said main organizer Claudia Reeves.

“I’m still trying to come down slowly from talking about the Film Festival,” she said.

“In fact, my family have issued a moratorium on speaking about it, and to focus on my other work!” she laughed.

“The shorts sessions were very well attended and enjoyable”.

The Kildare Nationalist then asked if any of the films managed to sell out, and the reply was in a strong affirmative.

“The two late-nighters [classics ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Chinatown’], but more than that. Five out of our 10 were sold out,” she revealed.

(The other three were ‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’, ‘Farmageddon’, and ‘The Lunchbox’.) “There you go,” said Claudia, and not without some deserved satisfaction.

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“I want to thank the sponsors through whose generosity the Festival was completely free,, - during the Christmas season, so it was not a mean feat,” she said.

“Oh, and Athy College, where we were able to use the facility for the whole weekend,” she added.

“Charlie Hughes opened the Festival for us [on the Thursday] and we were entertained by ukelele band ‘Four Strings and the Truth’, as well as the young people in ‘Shooting Stars’,” she said.

And for the $64,000 question?

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Claudia, when asked would she do it again.

“We’re already tentatively discussing it.

“This year was a good template so we’ll definitely be back next year.

“We well still continues with the smaller film nights throughout the year, to put out cinema for people to enjoy, and bringing cinema back to Athy,” she concluded.