April 2007 Award-winning film ONCE in special NUI Galway screening

The award-winning film ONCE by Irish filmmaker John Carney is to be screened in Roundstone, County Galway, on Saturday, 14 April, as part of the Folding Landscapes series in association with NUI Galway.

The low-budget musical tale of boy-meets-girl is Carney's third feature film and has already won the prestigious Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Carney, who has in the past worked with some of the best known Irish actors including Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and Gerard McSorley, made the film in just 17 days on the streets of Dublin for a mere $150,000. Starring Frames front man Glen Hansard along with Markéta Irglová, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova, and Marcella Plunkett, ONCE has become quite a phenomenon.

Carney will attend the Roundstone screening and facilitate a question and answers session with the audience. "I really did think when we made this film that we had made a film that very few people would want to see or maybe only people who are interested in music would want to see, and it turns out to be something quite different," he says.

Rod Stoneman, Director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, NUI Galway says: "John Carney s ONCE shows that imaginative micro budget film-making has the capacity to produce strong versions of Irish cinema. Like his earlier feature November Afternoon and his memorable television series Bachelor's Walk, his combination of a free-wheeling narrative and good music is exactly the style that can engage contemporary audiences. ONCE is a striking version of what he describes as an 'art-house musical' and it is likely to be as successful here as at the Sundance Film Festival."

ONCE will be screened at 7.00pm at Roundstone Community Hall and is a free event open to the public.

Unfolding Ideas is a Colloquium Series launched by NUI Galway to provide a forum for scholars, educators and artists to engage in a series of public talks, group discussion and workshops. The programme is organised by the Faculty of Arts and Galway University Foundation.

ENDS