The Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating eight years of bringing film to the people of Kerry, has issued a call for entries for the Kerry Film Festival 2007, which runs from October 27th to November 3rd.

"The Kerry Film Festival has issued a call for entries," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director Kerry Film Festival. "This will be the eight year of the festival and both the quantity and quality of the films has been rising every year so we're really looking forward to seeing what the call for entries brings in."

While the main focus of the festival has traditionally been on short film this year sees an expansion of the programme. O' Mahony, who has worked with Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Festival, the longest running film festival in the U.S., plans to develop the Kerry Film Festival by increasing the number of features screened and offering an enlarged workshop programme.

"It's early days yet in the planning of this festival but already we have a stellar workshop programme lined up," says O' Mahony. "Paul Mercier has agreed to give a Master Class in directing, while we have the Cork Film Centre on board to ensure we have an amazing offering of workshops and master classes."

"I was at the Kerry Film Festival after my short film, Before I Sleep, won the Clare Lynch award," said Paul Mercier. "I have always cherished that connection and look forward to going back to Tralee and contributing something."

"The Cork Film Centre is delighted to be working with the Kerry Film Festival," said Chris Hurley, Cork Film Centre. "We will collaborate with one another to ensure an exemplary offering of Master Classes and Workshops with Gunther Berkus lined up to teach a Master Class in Cinema 4D. Additionally, we will sponsor a cash prize of 500 euro to be awarded to the winner in the Best Animated Short category."

Past adjudicators of the Kerry Film Festival Short Film Competition have included such luminaries as director Mike Leigh and this year promises to be no different with programmers from the Sundance Film Festival, that recently brought the Irish feature, Once, to Sundance where it won an audience award, lined up to judge part of the short film competition.

"The quality of the films that we get is of the very highest calibre," said O' Mahony, "so it only seems fair that Kerry Film Festival strives to get adjudicators of an equally high calibre. This year we already have over one hundred shorts submitted and as a reflection on how happy we are with the quality of those shorts, we're offering a cash prize of 5,000 euro to the overall Best Director winner."

For more information on the Samhlaiocht Kerry Film Festival or to download application forms please log on to www.kerryfilmfestival.com