In a celebration of independent films from around the globe this week-end the 2014 Fingal Film Festival screened a broad and exciting range of feature films, documentaries, shorts and animation by emerging and established Irish and international filmmakers at Movies@Swords, Dublin.
The festival closed on Sunday night with eight prestigious Fingal Film Festival awards, ranging from cash to film equipment to broadcasting of films, which were announced at the awards event, at the four star Radisson Blu Hotel, Dublin airport – including a new category this year for Best Irish Language Film. Scannain was there, presenting the award for Best International Film to Belgian drama Electric Indigo.
UK/US co-production Calloused Hands took home the big prize of the night, winning Best Feature, while excellent Irish short Skunky Dog followed up its win at the Underground Cinema Film Festival by taking the prize for Best Short. Elsewhere Huggy Bear (Barrog Beir) won the inaugural Best Irish Language Film, and the beautiful I’ve Been a Sweeper won Best Student Film.
“It’s been an exciting third year” said Liz Kenny, Festival Managing Director. “The quality and range of submissions this year has been fantastic. As a young festival we have come a long way and it is so encouraging for our future growth and direction. The support has been overwhelming from both the film industry and our audiences. The local goodwill and enthusiasm here in Fingal has been truly amazing, a special big thank you to all our volunteers, they all have worked so incredibly hard.”
The films were judged by a panel comprising of: Mícheál Ó Meallaigh – Director of Commissioning TG4, Ciaran Tanham ( ISC) Director of Photography and Boulder Media Creative Director Rob Cullen.
The full list of winners were:
Best Feature Film
Winner: Calloused Hands
Director: Jesse Quinones
Country: UK/USA
Best Documentary Feature
Winner: Dah Zivota
Director: Snjezna Brezno
Country: Bosnia
Best International Film
Winner: Electric Indigo
Director: Jean-Julien Collette
Country: Belgium
Best Irish Language film (sponsored by TG4 and Film Equipment Hire Ireland)
Winner: Huggy Bear (Barrog Beir)
Director: Gavin Fitzgerald & Sibéal Eléna Davitt
Country: Ireland
Best Student Film (sponsored by Canon and BAI)
Winner: I’ve Been a Sweeper
Director: Ciaran Dooley
College: Dublin Institute of Technology
Best Animation Film
Winner: Shoot
Director: Rory Conway
Country: Ireland
Best Short Film
Winner: Skunky Dog
Director: James Fitzgerald
Country: Ireland
Best Fingal Newcomer Media Award (sponsored by Swords Express)
Winner: Volkswagen Joe
Director: Brian Dean
Country: Ireland
Fingal Film Festival was established in 2012 to provide a platform for local, national and international emerging filmmakers, offering encouragement and promotion for new work in a quality cinema environment. The Festival connects emerging voices in film with industry experts and independent creative filmmakers from around the world.
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