New festival focuses on popular European films

People who want a diversion from a film world dominated by Hollywood blockbusters will find plenty on offer next weekend when Galway hosts its inaugural Subtitle European Film Festival.  This will include top films from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland and Spain, and will run from Friday, January 31 to Sunday, February 2 at the city’s Town Hall Theatre.

Subtitle was devised by Richard Cook, the founder of the Cats Laughs Festival in Kilkenny and a representative of some of the country’s top actors including Cillian Murphy, Robert Sheehan and Fionnula Flanagan, as well as comedians and writers including Ross O’Carroll Kelly and Des Bishop. That’s through the Lisa Richards Agency, one of the country’s leading entertainment agencies, which established with his sister Lisa a quarter of a century ago. 
In his role representing actors, Richard regularly travels to film festivals worldwide, such as Cannes, Berlin and Toronto. It’s a whole other world.
“I was seeing all these foreign language films and wondering why they were not being shown in Ireland,” he says. These are films which have been hits in their own country – they are not arthouse – they just happen to be in a language other than English. 
Richard and his colleague Holly Carey decided to address this and a couple of years ago, hosted Ireland’s first ever Subtitle Festival in Kilkenny.
He’s very excited about bringing Subtitle to Galway, which he regards as an ideal venue for the festival, for several reasons.
Firstly Richard and the Town Hall have a long-established relationship, thanks to his role as agent for comics such as Des Bishop, Neil Delamere and Barry Murphy, who perform there regularly.
Then there’s the relationship between Galway and film – he mentions the Galway Film Club, which screens foreign films every week, and the internationally renowned Film Fleadh.
And there’s a growing audience for foreign language television in Ireland.