Lakelands picks up Best Irish Film at the 34th Galway Film Fleadh, along with awards for other Screen Ireland-supported feature films
Posted: 11th July 2022
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to congratulate all of the projects and filmmakers awarded at the 34th Galway Film Fleadh this year. The festival closed on Sunday, 10th July with its annual awards ceremony, where Lakelands picked up the Best Irish Film award, as well as major awards for three other Screen Ireland-supported feature films: The Sparrow, Nothing Compares and Tarrac.
Written, directed and produced by Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney, Lakelands follows Cian, a young Gaelic footballer who struggles to comes to terms with a career-ending injury after an attack on a night out. Cian undertakes a search for his own identity in a small town where Gaelic football is a religion, and identity is defined by what you can do on the pitch. The film, supported by Screen Ireland, won the Fleadh’s Best Marketplace Project Award in 2021 and returned to the Fleadh this year for its World Premiere, marking the directorial debuts of Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney, and a cast of emerging Irish stars including Éanna Hardwicke (Vivarium, Normal People) and Danielle Galligan (Netflix’s Shadow and Bone).
Written and directed by Michael Kinirons, The Sparrow won Best Irish First Feature following its World Premiere at the Fleadh on Friday. Produced by Alicia Ní Ghráinne, The Sparrow follows teenager Kevin, who lives in a dysfunctional household where grieving the death of his mother is forbidden by his father Larry, an ex-soldier. Kevin is also used to living in his brother Robbie's shadow, so he is surprised when Hanna, a newcomer to this West Cork parish, seems to prefer his company.
Sundance-selected documentary Nothing Compares, directed by Kathryn Ferguson, won the Best Irish Documentary award on the night, directed by Kathryn Ferguson. The film charts Sinéad OʼConnorʼs phenomenal rise to worldwide fame and examines how she used her voice at the height of her stardom. Focusing on Sinéad’s prophetic words and deeds across a five-year period (1987–1992), Nothing Compares presents an authored, cinematic portrait of a musical icon through a contemporary feminist lens.
Tarrac, directed by Declan Recks and written by Eugene O'Brien, also picked up the Best Cinematography in an Irish Film prize for DOP Patrick Jordan's work on the film. The Irish-language feature film, funded by Screen Ireland, TG4 and the BAI's Cine4 scheme, is a sports drama set in the Kerry Gaeltacht and rooted in the traditional sport of Naomhóg racing.