YOUNG film makers John Paul Tansey and Brian Willis will be on tenterhooks this weekend, as they await the result of the jury's deliberations at the Berlin Film Festival, where their short film, The Pear Bottle, is in competition in the Children's Short Film category. Recently shown on RTE as part of the Short Cuts initiative, the film is up against work from Israel and Norway. The odds on favourite is The Animator, a satirical piece about an egomaniac animator collecting an Oscar.
Oscar winning Wallace And Gromit creator Nick Park wasn't to be seen at this year's festival. However, there was no shortage of big names, including Gabriel Byrne, who was there with Julia Ormond to promote their new film of Peter Hoeg's literary sensation, IMSS Smilla's Feeling For Snow, directed by Bille August. It wasn't all fun in Berlin for Courtney Love whose starring role in The people vs Larry Flynt surprisingly failed to garner an Oscar nomination, despite much hype. The actress has previously given interviews referring to her time at Trinity College, Dublin, when she worked as a photographer for Hot Press. Despite much frantic trawling of the archives, Hot Press has been unable to confirm ever having had her on the books. It's not known how much effort Trinity was prepared to put into claiming her as one of its alumni.