The Annie Awards Qualifying Festival List is an exciting new initiative designed to recognize and celebrate film festivals around the world that champion the art of animation.
"This weekend is about energy," declared Belfast North MP John Finucane, his delivery so wooden that a mid-priced Ikea shelf would be proud.
The festival typically showcases many French-language films made in Africa, this year including the World Premiere of The Soul of Africa, director Gabriel Souleyka's documentary about African Spirituality.
On May 2, 2025, arts and cultural organizations across the country received notifications that grants and funding promised by the National Endowment for the Arts were being rescinded. This was part of a larger initiative by the Trump Administration to dismantle not just the NEA, but also other arts advocacy programs including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Ireland is an island where ridiculously beautiful sights pop up in the most unlikely of places, from gravity-defying sea stacks found at the end of a dirt road, to hiking trails that make you feel like you're walking on the moon.
You get this feeling when you enter the Burren's limestone landscape. It has an energy, and a history that permeates. A dynamic entrepreneur, MacNamara champions slow food at her Galway restaurant, Ard Bia, and slow fashion through her homespun label, The Tweed Project.
The Irish government will give 2,000 artists unrestricted weekly stipends in a program officials described as a "recognition, at government level, of the important role of the arts in Irish society." After a successful three-year pilot, the Irish government made its basic income program for artists permanent. Similar pilots have been launched here in the United States, but they're supported primarily by the nonprofit sector.
It's far from lucrative, but a behind-the-scenes glimpse of actors 'mastering their craft' on hit shows makes it worthwhile for the people who do it On a grey day in a remote forest, a bus pulls up and dozens of extras spill out in puffer jackets and trainers. Within an hour, they will be transformed into Norse peasants waiting for Vikings to ride into a built village. They have left their homes before dawn, and most will not be back for 10 or 12 hours.
I remember seeing it in drama school. I remember being so profoundly moved by it. I remember being so frightened by the performances in terms of seeing both sides to the thing that I think for most of us is, the most alive thing in our life, which is these, like, romantic relationships and the kind of inception of those things and the death of those things.
Ireland is creating a scheme that will give artists a weekly income in the hope of reducing their need for alternative work and boosting their creativity. The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) initiative will provide 325 (283) a week to 2,000 eligible artists based in the Republic of Ireland in three-year cycles. It is the first of its kind in the world, the culture minister, Patrick O'Donovan, said at the launch in Dublin on Tuesday.
So many tourists he picks up want to talk about the hit comedy and, as a fan himself, he's happy to oblige. We're stuck in traffic, which is odd for this small city on a wet Tuesday morning. It's because all the media are here, he jokes. But there is some truth to it. I'm visiting for the world premiere of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,
Our students go out into a world where there is a network and ecology of support through film, television and theatre, that is the most distinct thing in Ireland. This extraordinary and exponential growth reflects how the industry operates as an interconnected community rather than isolated entities.
This weekend sees the start of the 23rd San Francisco Greek Film Festival, which since 2004 has provided a local showcase for new screen work from the "cradle of Western civilization" still most associated with its contributions to arts and ideas in the ancient world. This latest edition brings together eight fictive features, sixteen documentaries of various length, and nine narrative shorts.
