GREAT finale to the Dublin Film Festival on Thursday night when a fleet of actors and film buffs warmly applauded Pat O'Connor latest and most accomplished film, Inventing The Abbotts, based on a short story by Sue Miller. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler, Bills Crudup and Kathy Baker, it's a tender story of adolescent longing and rebellion, and this was its world premiere.
Alan Rickman, a longtime friend of O'Connor, was at the heart of the throng. He's up for a BAFTA for his portrayal of Dev in Michael Collins, of course ... does he know there is soon to be a vacancy in the Parka Meanwhile, Rickman has just made his directing debut with a film just completed called Winter Guest, starring Emma Thompson, which I tipped to go to Cannes this year.
Other devotees of O'Connor who supported the festival included Brenda Fricker and Joe Pilkington, who gently heckled the director during the screening of Ballroom Of Romance earlier in the week. Northern actor John Lynch, who made his film debut in O'Connor's Cal, was there with the director Mary McGuckian.
The "surprise film" of the festival shown earlier on Thursday evening was widely expected to be The Butcher Boy. Accordingly, an actor looking very much like a butcher riding a black delivery bicycle, circled the stage as this newspaper's film correspondent, Michael Dwyer, announced the film: the European premiere of Dannie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro.
Alas, nothing to do with butchers or the Border, for that matter.
Mark Joffe, the Australian director of Cosi, one of the most popular films of this year's festival, was there - he has just made The Matchmaker on location in the west of Ireland. And one of the leading talent agents in London, Duncan Heath, was also on the look out while director Neil Jordan maintained his usual dark and brooding presence. Meanwhile, Rod Stoneman, chief executive of the Irish Film Board, Sheila Pratschke of the Irish Film Centre and Luke Dodd of the Irish Film Archive looked on benignly. After the successful screening, the Baton Rouge restaurant was heaving with hundreds of people partying until about 3 a.m.