Bumper Week for Irish Film as Accolades Roll In
This week has been a bumper one for Irish Film, seeing the announcement of a slew of awards, nominations and accolades for Irish talent. While the triumphs keep coming for 2015 releases, it looks like 2016 is off to a great start with two Irish films already announced for the Sundance Film Festival.
It was announced this week that two Irish films will have their world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2016. Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board - supported projects Mammal by Rebecca Daly (The Other Side of Sleep) and The Land of the Enlightened by Pieter-Jan De Pue will screen in January 2016 at one of the world’s leading festivals for independent film.
The world premiere of Rebecca Daly’s eagerly awaited feature film Mammal will take place at the festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Starring Rachel Griffiths, Barry Keoghan and Michael McElhatton, Mammal was produced by Conor Barry and Macdara Kelleher for Fastnet Films. The world premiere will also take place of feature documentary The Land of the Enlightened directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue and produced by Morgan Bushe for Fastnet Films, which will screen in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
At the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Brooklyn star Saoirse Ronan was honoured with the Best Actress Award. Previous recipients of this prestigious award include Marion Cotillard and Cate Blanchett.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) have announced that Brooklyn star Saoirse Ronan and Room star Brie Larson will share the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 2016 festival, the first time in its history that the award has been jointly awarded. Previous winners of the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award include Charlize Theron (Monster), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). The 2016 edition of SBIFF will take place from February 3rd to February 13th.
In New York, the National Board of Review has hailed Brie Larson as Best Actress for her performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, while her co-star Jacob Trembley got a nod for Breakthrough Performance. The Board also named Room as one of their nine top films. The film will be released in Irish cinemas on January 15th 2016.
At the Satellite Awards, which take place in Los Angeles days before the Academy Awards®, Room secured four nominations in the categories of Best Film, Best Director (Lenny Abrahamson), Best Actress (Brie Larson) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Emma Donoghue). Brooklyn was nominated in the categories of Best Film and Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan). The Satellite Awards take place on February 21st.
Meanwhile, IMDb’s Col Needham has announced his top ten films of 2015, featuring no less than three IFB - supported films. Room, Brooklyn and The Lobster feature in this list of favourites from the CEO of one of the world’s most popular sources of film content.
Following on from a successful week for Irish film, the Moet British Independent Film Awards take place in London this Sunday. Irish co-production The Lobster has received no less than seven nominations with Brooklyn being nominated in five categories in addition to a nomination each for Room and Corin Hardy’s The Hallow. In addition, Irish actor Michael Fassbender has been nominated for Best Actor for his role in Macbeth, while Brendan Gleeson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Suffragette.