Conor Horgan Wins New Director's Award at San Francisco Irish Film Festival
Conor Horgan, writer and director of One Hundred Mornings, won the New Director's Award at the seventh annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival (sfirishfilm.com). The Festival screened 15 Irish films this past weekend at The Roxie Theater. With more than 1000 people in attendance over three days, the year's Festival is the most successful to date.
Horgan accepted the award Friday night after the well-attended screening of One Hundred Mornings. This post-apocalyptic drama received the Slamdance Jury Special Mention, IFTA Cinematography, and Workbook Project Discovery & Distribution awards in 2010. One Hundred Mornings will make its Nordic debut at the Reykjavik International Film Festival later this month.
"The San Francisco Irish Film Festival is a hugely friendly and well thought-out affair", says Conor Horgan, director of One Hundred Mornings. "Festival director Niall McKay and his team put on a great show, with appreciative audiences watching the very best of current Irish films in the beautiful, 100-year-old Roxie Theater. I had a fantastic time showing my film there, and am really looking to coming back."
A Film With Me In It and His and Hers also played to full houses at the Festival. Mark Doherty won the Best Screenplay award for A Film with Me In It, while John Butler, who directed The Ballad of Kid Kanturk, won Best Director for a short film. Bye Bye Now, a story about the disappearance of the phone box in Ireland, received a special mention.
"Any festival is only as strong as its films," says Festival Director Niall McKay. "The quality of the films has gone from good to great in the seven years that I have been programming the festival."
The San Francisco Film Festival thanks its sponsors for their generous contributions. The Festival will be co-presenting the Irish film My Brothers with the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2010.