Chicago’s Hooley fest seeks movie

Mike Houlihan

 

By Irish Echo Staff

Are you the next John Ford? Well, if you think you might be, Mike Houlihan would love to hear from you. He is looking for the third film to be screened at the fifth Annual Irish American Movie Hooley at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago in September.

“We are particularly excited because two of our selected films will be debuting at the Galway Film Fleadh later this month,” Hooley said. “Both of those films were shot in Ireland and we’re very proud of that.”

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“This film festival was founded to discover new talent, particularly Irish American talent. We are the only Irish-American film festival in the world [works by Irish-Americans or about Irish America]. And we’re hoping to discover the next Ford, Preston Sturges, or James Cagney, who epitomized the romantic Irish-American sense of identity and legendary storytelling.

“Unfortunately, we don’t get many submissions from Irish-American filmmakers. And it’s starting to annoy me,” Houlihan said.

“Sure. We ain’t Sundance, or Toronto, or Tribeca, but we will fly you to Chicago for the weekend, put you up at the luxurious Hilton on The Magnificent Mile, and treat you like royalty for the entire weekend, including plenty of booze and food and craic!”

“And your film will be reviewed in the all the Chicago press. And you will have the time of your life. Watch our testimonial reel of filmmakers who have been with us at moviehooley.org.

“And to make it even easier, I will waive all submission fees that come directly to my email, hiberniantransmedia@gmail.com Just send me a link to your film and we will take a look and you could be sitting pretty on Friday night Sept. 27, when we premiere your masterpiece to the world.”

Houlihan urges applicants to “do it now,” because the festival will be choosing that third film before the end of July.

 

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