And the Award goes to...

With the close of the 13th Chicago Irish Film Festival, there was certainly a buzz in the air as audience members tried to gage who would win the awards for best short film. This year’s entries were truly remarkable in their diversity and once again highlight the extraordinary talents of today’s Irish filmmakers. That only twenty votes separated the winners is a tribute to all the films…

Here are the winners:

2012 AUDIENCE AWARDS

 

 

1st Place: THE HEIST directed by Thomas Heffernon

2nd Place: DARKSIDE OF THE LENS directed by Mickey Smith

3rd Place: DOWNPOUR directed by Claire Dix

Honorable Mention: DEEP END DANCE directed by David Bolger

 

2012 FESTIVAL AWARDS:

 

 

1st Place: THE SHORE directed by Terry George

2nd Place: PATIENCE directed by Don Field and Roy Lecane

3rd Place: THE MARVELS OF MICK MURPHY directed by Etain McGuckian and Claire O’Connor

Honorable Mention: RIDERS TO THE SEA directed by Orla Walsh

The Inaugural Consulate of Ireland
Award was present to:

 

David Quin for his film LEITRONUIM

The Consulate of Ireland Award recognizes a short film that best celebrates Irish culture or film production. The festival is extremely grateful to Aidan Cronin, Consul General of Ireland and Tim Reilly, Vice Consul General of Ireland for inaugurating this award and who were both on hand for the presentation.

The award was announced by Ireland’s Minister of Housing, Jan O’Sullivan, who spoke about the amazing growth and innovation in filmmaking that has occurred since the 1990’s in Ireland. Citing Ireland as the filming location for dozens of international films, for winning three Oscars in the last eight years and for its contribution to the film industry especially in animation and short film the minister was heartfelt in her praise and respect for Irish filmmakers’ achievements throughout the world.

Although short films have always been the centerpiece of the festival there is no doubt that documentaries have also played a significant role at the festival and this year was a truly banner year. Presenting their documentaries were Ed Godsell, The Road To Moneygall: Peter Flynn, Blazing The Trails: The O’Kalems in Ireland:  and Lelia Doolan, Bernadette: Notes On A Political Journey. All three documentaries and filmmakers received thunderous applause and culminated in insightful Q&A’s that included updated bits of information about the subjects of the film as well as what current projects the filmmakers are working on. Also part of the documentary program where three other fascinating and diverse looks at Irish culture, Bram Stoker agus Dracula by Keith Grady; Hotpress: The Write Stuff by John O’Donnell and Ballymun Lullaby by Frank Berry.

Marking the 90th anniversary of its release was a screening of Come On Over featured with two Kalem Films, The Lad from Old Ireland and His Mother. The festival is immeasurably grateful to Aoife Coughan and Sunniva O’Flynn at the Irish Film Archive,
Mary Keene at The Museum of Modern Art Film Preservation Center, Dennis Scott and Mark Noller both members of the Chicago Silent Film Society.

This year the festival is also extremely grateful to Sadhbh Murphy at Network Ireland and Christine Sisk at Culture Ireland for their support. Their knowledge of Irish film and film distribution is amazing; we were honored to be the beneficiaries.