Athlone's Rhys heading to Texas for major film festival premiere

A talented teenage actor from Athlone will soon be heading to a prestigious festival in Texas for the world premiere of an Irish film in which he stars.

Hollywood A-listers Sandra Bullock and Nicholas Cage are among those due to attend next month's South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Austin, and they will be joined there by former Athlone Community College student Rhys Mannion from Kiltoom.

Rhys (19) is one of the lead actors in It Is In Us All, a psychological thriller which was filmed in Donegal during the autumn of 2020.

The film was written and directed by Antonia Campbell-Hughes and stars Cosmo Jarvis. It's one of eight world premieres that are to be screened for the 'Narrative Feature Competition' at the festival in Texas.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent last week, Rhys said he was delighted to have been invited to attend the SXSW screening along with fellow actor Cosmo Jarvis and the film's producers.

"That was definitely an exciting phonecall to receive!" he said, adding that, although he has family in the US, he has never been to Texas before.

While some of the specifics about It Is In Us All are being kept under wraps for the time-being, Rhys has seen the finished version that will be shown for the first time in the US ahead of an expected Irish release at a later date.

"(The writer and director of the film) Antonia Campbell-Hughes has a distinctive way of telling a story, which is really interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing the reaction to it," he said.

The SXSW festival, which also includes a vast array of live music performances in addition to film screenings, will take place between March 11 and March 20.

Before then, however, Rhys will be part of another film festival closer to home. The Virgin Media-sponsored Dublin International Film Festival gets underway on Wednesday, February 23, and will include a short film in which he appears.

"The film is called Water Under The Bridge and it's directed by a man named Rehan Ali," explained Rhys. "It's basically a coming-of-age story about a person living in a direct provision centre. It's just a moment grabbed in his life, but it's very interesting.

"I basically play a not-so-nice character whose home is Carrick-on-Suir. I show this guy around, but at his expense, really."

In 2020, Rhys' produced and starred in a famine-themed musical he had written called Dawn na Dorcha. The musical was staged in Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre in August of 2020. It has since been recorded in the studio and is now available on Spotify.

"It's fun to get the recording out there, because (Dawn na Dorcha) was the first piece of work I was a part of that got out into the world," he said modestly.

Rhys is a son of Ciaran and Mary Mannion. He is currently studying at the Bow Street Film Academy in Dublin and plans to take up a deferred course in music and theatre studies at Trinity College in September.