So I’m still poring over my programme for the Dublin Film Festival and with events good and bad (New Zealand and work respectively) meaning I didn’t get to the Cork Film Festival for 2 years I am looking forward to making the most of this my first year attending the Dublin festival. The programme looks good. What presence there is of American film is distinctly indie, with very much a world cinema feel to the line up and so too a number of classics thrown in for good measure. No doubt tickets for the Opening and Closing Galas will sell out promptly when tickets go on sale tonight, as well as high profile movies such as ‘There Will Be Blood’.

I am beyond happy to have tickets for ‘In Bruges’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’. Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson will both be in attendance at the Gala screening of ‘There Will Be Blood’, which puts the icing on an already dam tasty cake. Colin Farell makes a second appearance in my viewing line up alongside Ewan McGregor in the new Woody Allen ‘Cassandras Dream’, which sees the director continue his recent practice of setting his stories in London. Torn between seeing ‘Blade Runner’ on the big screen and the much more quirky ‘Lars and Real Girl’, I went with the Ryan Gosling led family drama and hope my decision was the right one. Performing screenwriting duties on ‘Out of Sight’, Scott Frank makes his directorial debut with ‘The Lookout’ starring Joseph Godron Levitt. In what has been praised as an excellent follow up to ‘The Squid and the Whale’ I am expecting much dysfunction in ‘Margot and the Wedding’ with Nicole Kidman on serious role indie actress duties. And award winning of course caught my eye so I will also be checking out the Israeli/French film ‘Jellyfish’ which won Best Debut at Cannes. These were the choices I made on a quick inspection at the launch of the programme this afternoon. I am lucky enough to have a season pass so I will be sure to examine more thoroughly the programme. I always try to fit in some shorts, which can be such treats and there are so few outlets to enjoy them normally.