Facebook status led small Irish film into the U.S. big league

Irish film maker no-budget flick nominated

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A Dublin filmmaker’s movie has been nominated for a prestigious U.S. award, just a year after he appealed to Facebook users for help producing it.

Frustrated by the movie industry, in December 2009, Terry McMahon typed the following into his Facebook status.

“Intend making no budget feature, "Charlie Casanova," need cast, equipment, locations, and a lot of balls. Any takers?”

In one day over 130 people had replied volunteering their services for the film production and soon actors, editors, and set designers were all pitching in on the project.

“Charlie Casanova” has been selected for the Narrative Feature competition at the prestigious SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

“There were 4,900 submissions and out of that 130 films were chosen for the festival. Just nine were chosen for the competition,” he told Journal.ie.

“It’s a real David and Goliath story. It’s huge, there has been interest from Variety, Filmmaker and other publications. But what happens now, I have no idea,” he added.

McMahon describes his movie as “a ruling class sociopath who knocks down a working class girl in a hit-and-run and uses a deck of playing cards to determine his fate."

It has not yet been screen in Ireland: “I’ve had 140 emails from producers and distributors around the world expressing interest in the film, but not one from Ireland,” said the film director who is originally from Westmeath.

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