Screen Ireland-supported shorts see further success at the 2020 Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival
Posted: 9th March 2020
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to wish a warm congratulations to the filmmaking teams behind two Screen Ireland-supported short films, Welcome to a Bright White Limbo and Sister This, at the 2020 Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. While features like Tom Sullivan's Arracht was awarded Best Irish Film, and writer/director Paddy Slattery won an Aer Lingus Discovery Award for his feature debut Broken Law, the festival's closing weekend also saw similar success for Screen Ireland-supported short films.
Cara Holmes' Welcome to a Bright White Limbo, funded under Screen Ireland's Real Shorts documentary short film scheme, picked up the Best Irish Short Film award. Produced by Zlata Filipovic for Invisible Thread, this innovative, poetic and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of choreographer and dancer Oona Doherty and the creative process of her award-winning show Hope Hunt.
Director Claire Byrne also received an Aer Lingus Discovery Award for her short film Sister This, a Screen Ireland Focus Short film with an all-female creative team, written by Tracy Martin and produced by Claire Gormley for Parallel Films. Two sisters talk on the phone about an upcoming birthday; tempers flare as promises are broken. Secrets are revealed and tears are shed. Both women eventually realise that shame is one thing they can’t afford if they’re going to survive.
The Virgin Media International Film Festival curated a special programme of female-directed Screen Ireland shorts for this year's festival, an eclectic line-up of documentary and live-action shorts representing emerging filmmaking talent across Screen Ireland's short film funding schemes.