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THE IRISH FILM Classification Office (Ifco) has upheld an 18s rating for an Irish film by a debut director despite the film being given a 15s rating in the UK.
Kissing Candice by award-winning ad and music video director Aoife McArdle is due for release in the coming months but it will not be seen by the young people it portrays due to its classification.
The film is about a young girl in a border town who first dreams of and then meets a young boy who’s connected to a gang that is terrorising her town.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been shown at other youth-orientated festivals but its distributors have failed to have the classification changed in Ireland after requesting a review of the 18s cert.
Wildcard Distribution is the Irish distributor for the film and its managing director Patrick O’Neill has said that the company was surprised when it was given an 18s cert.
“We just thought the rating was a little harsh for the film, we just thought something along the lines of a 15A or a 16 would have been more in keeping with the content of the film,” O’Neill said.
This film was made for a youth audience, and has already screened at festivals throughout the world, including the Generations strand of the Berlinale, and Cinemagic, which both select films specifically for under 18s.
Ifco’s classification of the film says that the film contains “scenes of strong drugs abuse, strong violence and language and strong sex references” and was therefore given an 18s rating.
The UK’s British Board of Film Classification was less severe in its rating of the film, giving it a 15s cert and noting that it contained “very strong language, strong threat, drug misuse”.
In terms of the film’s sex references, the BBFC says that the film features “one sequence where a woman masturbates in bed”.
Wildcard Distribution said it accepted Ifco’s decision not to overturn its initial rating of the film but added that it will affect how the film is marketed in Ireland and will restrict the audience for McArdle’s work.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the director of film classification at Ifco Ger Connolly said the rating was in part due to the conflation of violence, threat and drug use by teens in the film.
“Regarding an appeal, I did, on request from the distributor, have a second look which did not change my opinion. I also explained that there was the option of a formal appeal to the Classification of Films Appeal Board, which is a totally independent body. They chose not to avail of this option,” Connolly added.
Although the film is the director’s feature debut, she has won numerous awards for ads for brands such as Audi, Honda and Samsung. Only this week she was named by Adweek in a list of filmakers alongside Greta Gerwig, Spike Jonze and Ava DuVernay.
“Aoife’s a real talent, she’s a visionary director, she’s going to go so far,” O’Neill told TheJournal.ie.
“This is her feature debut. So I just think it’s a bit of a shame because it’s kind of reflective of what teenagers are watching and at any screening we’re aware of where a teen audience has watched it they responded very positively.”
Kissing Candice is released in cinemas on 22 June
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Congrats to all the winners.
We could do with some good news articles for a change. How about restaurants and takeaways that went above and beyond to service customers in a brutal 2020 year? Or best reviewed meal kits from 2020? Some many in that industry are doing their best. But it’s easy to call out the few bad apples.
@Keith Richardson: sorry my comment meant for Keith
@Keith Richardson: agree one of local takeaways offered free meals to people who needed a meal at start of lockdown 2.0 . always support them and throw a larger than average tip in to them.
@Keith Richardson: this is important public health information from the Food Safety Authority. It gets printed periodically in many Irish news outlets a for reasons of public health. The journal have been doing it for a long time.
Anyways you don’t have to look far for the kind banal pop journalism you’re raving about there. You can find “the best of this or that” literally everywhere
Personally I’d prefer to know if a restaurant/bar/cafe near was serving dubious food so I would know to avoid it. They don’t all get closed down immediately
Perhaps you are happy enough funnelling any old tripe down your gullet but I am not
A bit light on detail
@Denis Leane: the details would have been published at the time the order was made to close, the orders are published every month
@Brian Nevin: yea but we wanted to see particular names of premises’ printed here. Too much work to go searching
I’m thinking of opening a sushi takeaway. Anyone got a spare bedroom so I can get the cooking done?
@Levante Dublin: cooking? Sushi ? I thought that’s the beauty of sushi you only need a bedroom. No kitchen necessary. A knife and a cutting board and you’re made
@Levante Dublin: agree…. The Press love negativity…. what about all those bars and restaurants that abide by the law and are pristine…. probably 99+%
@Ian Forbes: reporting facts isn’t being negative. By default they SHOULD be pristine.
@Jakie McLean: sushi technically refers to the rice, I believe, which does need to be cooked. As such,you can get various types where all ingredients are cooked. Like with sushi involving chicken.
@Ian Forbes: News is news, it isn’t positive or negative
@Jakie McLean: rice!
@Ian Forbes: i look at it the other way, so many good restaurants and the little few bad ones. It’s a good news story.
@Levante Dublin: only need to cook the rice
Couldn’t we introduce a food hygiene rating as they have in the UK, as the activity of the Irish Food Safety Authority is not particularly transparent
@Jules: True story. I grew up in Coventry and as a kid every Friday we got food from the same chippy. I since moved to Dublin but I, and my three siblings, were back to see my mother who ill and hospitalised at the time. We did the nostalgia tour and went to the chippy for dinner. They had a half a star out of 5 rating…
@Jules: the food in the UK is muck. Their food quality and standards are deplorable compared to ours
@Denise Ní Cinnseala: what a silly sweeping comment
Cáitín
Name and shame
@Mark Gaffney: the names are on the FSAI website.
Gives new meaning to the phrase “dishing the dirt”.
Is there any within 5 km of me.? I feel hungry
Mostly Pakistani s
Is this a dirty article?
Where’s the ?
Name & Shame the business and its owners!
This will continue otherwise simple as!
which restaurants in Cork?
have your say