Foyle Film Festival: 30 years of silver screen

The film festival that gave a first public screening to Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is marking its 30th anniversary with another diverse celebration of cinema.

A question and answer session with actor Richard E Grant - himself celebrating 30 years in film - is among a host of highlights at this year's Foyle Film Festival, Northern Ireland's only Oscar-affiliated film festival.

Academy award-winning director Jim Sheridan, the Oscar-winning Aardman Animation team and actor Stephen Rea also feature in an eclectic festival programme.

Grant, the star of Withnail and I, appears at the festival for a special screening of the classic British comedy released in the same year as the first Foyle Film Festival.

It was the role that would launch a stellar career.

"I had a bone-deep conviction that whoever got to play this part, it would be a career changer for them. I never dreamt that I would get cast for it because I had never done a movie before," he told BBC Radio Ulster.

"There's a real synchronicity because it's the 30th anniversary of the film festival and the anniversary of when this film was released.

"I'm very grateful for the Foyle Film Festival for even hosting this and having a screening after all these years," he said.

The festival has come a long way since its debut on the circuit in 1987.

Derry film maker, and one of the festival's founders, Margo Harkin, recalls a "DIY approach" to its inception.

"We had a meeting in Derry in the old Foyle College. We had Julie Barber from Field Day, Denis Bradley from Northland Films and most of the members of Derry Film and Video.

"I remember that first meeting was all over the place. We didn't even take minutes. It was that bad, but that's where we started and from where it took off."

The opening night of the very first festival saw a screening of Stand By Me.

Now regarded as one "of the great highlights in Derry's cultural calendar" the festival has flourished in the decades since, gaining international recognition and a reputation for nurturing emerging film-makers.

There have been many highlights along the way.

Trainspotting, as much a 1990s pop culture phenomenon as a hit movie, had its first public screening to a puzzled festival crowd in 1995.

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle returned to the festival in 2013 - Derry's year as the UK City of Culture - when he told BBC Radio Foyle of his memories of the film's "very first screening anywhere in the world for anyone other than the filmmakers".

He said the audience did not know what to expect.

"People were delighted we were there because Shallow Grave had done all right, but they were a bit baffled," he said.

"It was an extraordinary novel but a cult novel, it hadn't broken through.

"What was interesting was we showed it to about 100 people, kind of very young, like late teens, and they were baffled to be honest."

Brendan Gleeson, Julie Christie, Terry George, Neil Jordan, Ray Winstone, Wim Wenders, and Kenneth Branagh have all graced the festival's red carpet over the last three decades.

Former festival director Shauna Kelpie remembers how an invite was even extended to the modern cinema's world's biggest name.

"Someone phoned up to the office from reception to say John Hume was in and wanted to speak to us," she said.

"I was blown away by the fact that he had come to our tiny office then he said: 'I met Steven Spielberg at a graduation, we are going to write him a letter to invite him over'. I obviously gasped," she said.

An invitation was sent, but the dates did not suit.

Another letter-writing exercise, however, would see Oscar affiliation bestowed upon the festival.

At the suggestion of a colleague, the then festival director wrote to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to have their backing for the award - meaning winners would be considered by Oscars judges.

"We've just built on it from there - tried to expand the categories, connect with the industry in Dublin and in Belfast, and to highlight it as an opportunity for emerging film makers," she added.

This year's festival opened on Friday night with a showing of Emma Stone and Steve Carell's latest film, Battle of the Sexes.

The 10-day programme includes more than 100 screenings in Londonderry's Guildhall, Nerve Centre and Brunswick Moviebowl.

Stephen Rea will join the festival in paying tribute to the late Sam Shepard with a screening of Days Of Heaven followed by exclusive readings of his short stories.

The actor, playwright and director, who passed away earlier this year, was a special guest of the festival in 2013.

Festival director Bernie McLaughlin said the programme offers audiences "the chance to enjoy films that wouldn't otherwise be available on the silver screen in Derry.