THE Belfast Film Festival unveiled its full programme earlier this week, which will kick off on March 30 at Movie House Dublin Road with a gala premiere for comedy spoof Mindhorn, starring Mighty Boosh man Julian Barratt.
Barratt will be in attendance on the night for the screening of this Sean Foley-directed tale of a washed-up actor, Richard Thorncroft, whose fictional, bionic, long-cancelled 1980s TV detective, Mindhorn, is called back into action as the only man who can help DC Baines (Andrea Riseborough) to nab the murderous Melly (Russell Tovey), a crazed Mindhorn-obsessed killer terrorising the Isle of Man.
By contrast, the Festival's closing gala on April is a rather less fun affair, the gritty Northern Ireland-shot revenge thriller Bad Day for The Cut which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
The debut feature from Co Tyrone director Chris Baugh stars Nigel O’Neill, Susan Lynch, Jozef Pawlowski and Stuart Graham in a character-driven crime movie in which no-one gets off lightly.
There will also be a special mid-week gala of Irish novelist and film-maker John Butler's Handsome Devil, while other programme highlights include Oscar-nominated Swedish comedy drama A Man Called Ove, the concert film Miss Sharon Jones! about the titular r'n'b singer, Mad To Be Normal starring David Tennant, Mark Cousins's latest film, Stockholm My Love and (as mentioned last week) quite a few John Cusack classics – nearly all of which are already sold out.
:: Full programme details and tickets available from Belfastfilmfestival.org
