‘Patrick’s Day’ is the Winner of Audience Award at 2014 Cork Film Festival
Irish film Patrick’s Day was the winner of the Audience Award at the 2014 Cork Film Festival yesterday evening (November 16th).
This is the latest in a long series of prizes awarded to Terry McMahon’s acclaimed film. In October it won three awards at the Woodstock Film Festival, including Best Feature Narrative, Best Cinematography and Best Editing of a Feature Narrative. It won two jury awards at the Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival in Michigan in the categories of Best Actor, which was awarded to Moe Dunford, as well as Best Screenplay which went to McMahon. It was also the joint winner of the Best Irish Feature award at the Galway Film Fleadh in July.
The film also screened in Los Angeles on October 10th after winning the highly-coveted Screen Directors Guild ‘Finders Series’ Award. It was shown to key distributors and film industry representatives in an effort to gain a US distribution deal.
Critical reaction to Patrick’s Day has been highly positive. Donald Clarke in the Irish Times described it as an “interesting, original, ultimately moving take on mental illness.” Former Health Board Chief Psychiatrist Ivor Browne praised the film, stating “I feel it is vital that Patrick’s Day should be shown to as wide a public as possible.”
Patrick’s Day is McMahon’s second feature film as director after Charlie Casanova. The film stars Moe Dunford as Patrick, a mentally ill young man who falls in love with a depressed flight attended (Catherine Walker) much to the disapproval of his mother (Kerry Fox). The film was produced by Ignition Film Productions and financed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, RTÉ, Forefront Features, Movie House Cinemas and Screen Scene.
Patrick’s Day will be distributed in Ireland by Wildcard Distribution and will be released in early 2015. Watch the trailer for Patrick’s Day on YouTube.