Fundraising Fellowship Ireland – Year 1 Thoughts From Aoibhie McCarthy, Marketing & Development Officer, Cork Film Festival
Cork Film Festival (CFF) is Ireland’s first and largest film festival, a local, national and international celebration of cinema, in Cork each November. The 63rd edition in 2018 successfully presented 400+ events and screenings of the latest and best Irish and international titles, over 10 days. We welcomed 18,000+ film lovers, a 22% increase in visitor engagement. Cork is where filmmakers want their work to be seen- we received 3,600+ film submissions from across the globe and a further 1,000 were viewed and curated by our expert team, to present the very best in world cinema. The programme elicited an overwhelmingly positive response from the public, media and film sector and was universally recognised as a world class offering, representing a palpable step change for CFF. As one of our attendees put it, “this was by far the biggest, boldest and best festival to date!”.
The focus of Year 1 of the Fellowship has been this successful delivery of the first stage of our ambitious three year plan, a development roadmap for sustainable growth. As I enter Year 2, CFF is expanding programmatically, geographically and demographically to meet the demonstrable need for quality cultural cinema in Cork and Munster year-round. With the support of Business to Arts, we are seeking partners who match our ambition.
The 64th edition will expand to 11 days, from the 7th – 17th November 2019. Premieres of significant international titles are planned for two high-impact Opening and Closing Galas, bookending 120+ feature films, for which CFF seeks Gala and Presenting Partners. We will present 9 Awards to filmmakers, 3 of which are Oscar®-qualifying. Award Partners are sought to support excellence in short filmmaking through our Oscar®-qualifying Grand Prix International Short and new Grand Prix Documentary Short Awards.
CFF supports future filmmakers and nurtures future film audiences. We offer an extensive Schools Programme, attendance at which more than doubled in 2018. CFF seeks a Schools Programme Partner to support its expansion from 4 days to 2 weeks, to meet growing demand from Secondary Schools and to include Primary Schools. Our Family Programme enables children (and grown-ups!) to enjoy stories told by the world’s greatest storytellers on film. CFF invites a Family Programme Partner to join us in inspiring the next generation.
As we look to the future, we celebrate our illustrious past through our archives of 64 years collated material, which tracks not only the history of the Festival, founded in the 1950′s alongside Cannes, but offers insights into the development of modern film. In 2018, we partnered with UCC to digitise our collection and we now seek an Archive Partner to make this unique resource publicly available in 2020, to mark our 65th anniversary.
If you would like to learn more about how you can partner with CFF please contact me at development@corkfilmfest.org or at 021 4271711 / 0863509668.
Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland is a partnership between Business to Arts and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Tags: Aoibhie McCarthy, Business to Arts, Fundraising, fundraising fellowship ireland, fundraisingfellow
