Irish Talent Celebrated at the 6th Irish Film & Television Awards
The winners of the 6th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards were announced at a gala ceremony which celebrated the wealth of Irish talent in Dublin's Burlington Hotel last weekend.
Lance Daly picked up the Best Director IFTA for Kisses, his third feature film. Kisses screened at some of the worlds most prestigious festivals such as Toronto and Telluride to critical acclaim last year and screened in cinemas throughout Ireland last November. J Patrick Duffner picked up the Best Editing award for his work on the film.
Waveriders, the surfing documentary directed by Joel Conroy received the inaugural George Morrison Feature Documentary Award. The documentary which recently had its US premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival will be released in cinemas nationwide later this Spring.
Following her success at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, Eileen Walsh was awarded the Best Actress in a Lead Role for her role in Eden, a film which takes a look at the slow disintegration of a marriage during the week running up to a couple's 10th anniversary. Meanwhile Michael Fassbender was presented with the Irish Film Board Rising Star Award as well as Best Actor in Lead Role award for his role as Bobby Sands in the acclaimed feature film Hunger.
Hunger was named Best Film at the awards while In Bruges was named Best International Film with Martin McDonagh receiving the award for Best Script. The Frameworks animated short film Granny O'Grimms Sleeping Beauty, directed by Nicky Phelan won the Best Animation prize, while the short drama The Door, written and directed by Juanita Wilson as part of the Short Cuts scheme scooped the Best Short Film award.
Saoirse Ronan won the Actress in a Supporting Role Film IFTA for Death Defying Acts while Liam Cunningham won the Actor in a Supporting Role Film IFTA for Hunger.
In the craft categories PJ Dillon received the IFTA for Director of Photography for the feature film 32A while Hunger picked up the awards for Original Score (David Holmes), Production Design (Tom McCullagh) and Sound (Ronan Hill & Mervyn Moore).
In the television categories, The Tudors scooped a number of awards - Best Drama Series, Best Director TV (Ciaran Donnelly), Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role (Peter O'Toole, Maria Doyle Kennedy), Best Costume Design (Joan Bergin) and Best Make-up and Hair (Sharon Doyle and Dee Corcoran) while the Irish language teen drama Aifric picked up the Best Children's/Youth award.
Finally, President of Ireland Mary McAleese presented the Industry Lifetime Contribution Award to documentary filmmaker George Morrison.