Rising Star Award Nominees Anounced
Special Focus on New Talent
Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) and the Irish Film and Television Academy are delighted to announce the new Rising Star Award nominees for 2008, the winners of which will be announced at the Irish Film and Television Award Ceremony on February 17th.
Selected by a special jury and sponsored by the IFB, the Rising Star Award aims to highlight exceptional new talent working in all areas of the Irish film industry. The 2008 nominees are Saoirse Ronan (Actress, Atonement), Martin McCann (Actor, Closing the Ring), Marian Quinn (Director, 32A), Mark Mahon (Producer, Strength & Honour) and Cecilia Ahern (Writer).
Simon Perry, Chief Executive, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board said “The Rising Star Award profiles and fosters new creative talent which is fundamental to what the IFB exists to achieve.”
Aine Moriarty, Chief Executive of the Irish Film and Television Academy said, “This is a very significant award which puts the spotlight on great new Irish talent making their mark in film. The Academy welcomes and acknowledges the Irish Film Board’s ongoing support and nurturing of Ireland’s Rising Stars.”
Saoirse Ronan - Actress
Her role in Atonement, as Briony Tallis, a 13 year old fledgling writer who irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's (Keira Knightley) lover (James McAvoy) of a crime he did not commit, has earned Saoirse a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. This role also earned Saoirse a nomination for Best Young Actress at the Critic Choice Awards and a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama at the Satellite Awards.
In 2008, she'll appear with Bill Murray in the action-fantasy City of Ember and star as a con artist in Death Defying Acts alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones. She also has the lead role in Peter Jackson's film version of The Lovely Bones.
Martin McCann - Actor
In 2007 Martin starred in the feature film Closing the Ring, the TV drama My Boy Jack and the short film The Sound of People.
Closing the Ring, directed by Richard Attenborough tells the story of a young man who searches for the proper owner of a ring that belonged to a US World War II bomber pilot. Set in Belfast and North Carolina, Martin was cast as Jimmy Reilly and starred along side MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton.
In My Boy Jack, the two hour TV drama which stars Daniel Radcliffe and told the story of Rudyard Kipling (David Haig) and his wife Carrie (Kim Cattrall) and their grief for their son Jack (Radcliffe) who died in World War I, Martin played the role of Bowe. McCann also stars in the short film The Sound of People, which was written and directed by Simon Fitzmaurice, which has been selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, North America's most prestigious independent film festival.
Martin's next project will be the epic mini series The Pacific which is produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and will be shot on location in Australia.
Marian Quinn – Director
Marian Quinn wrote and directed the feature film 32A which has been selected for the prestigious Berlin Film Festival next month, in the Generation 14 Plus section.
This debut film which stars Aidan Quinn, Orla Brady, Jared Harris and Kate O’Toole, is a heart-warming tale about the ‘in-between' time of the heroine Maeve's life, when she is no longer a child and not yet a woman. It was produced by Tommy Weir and Janey Pictures with funding from the Irish Film Board, RTE, BCI, MBB and MDM.
32A premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2007 and went on to win the Best First Film Award at the festival. Marian also won The Tiernan McBride Award for Scriptwriting in 2002 for the project.
Mark Mahon - Producer
Mark Mahan produced and directed his first film this year Strength and Honour. Filmed completely in his native Cork city and county and starring Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Richard Chamberlain and Patrick Bergin, the film follows a single father who decides to break his dying wife's last wish not to box again in order to save his young son from certain death. Strength and Honour won the Festival Prize at the Boston Film Festival in 2007.
Mark is currently working on his next project, Freedom Within the Heart which is currently in pre-production.
Cecilia Ahern - Writer
In 2004, Cecilia's first novel PS I Love You was the number one bestseller in Ireland and became a bestseller in the UK, US, Germany and Holland and was sold in over forty countries worldwide. The book has been made into a motion picture directed by Richard LaGravenese and stars Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, Gerard Butler, Harry Connick Jnr and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Cecilia is also the co-creator and producer for the US sitcom Samatha Who? which stars the Emmy Award winner Christina Applegate. The show is about a 30-year-old vice president of a real estate company who, after becoming the victim of a hit-and-run accident, develops amnesia and has to rediscover her life, her relationships and herself.