News

Both have received 10 nominations.

Colm Bairéad’s debut The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast are the joint frontrunners for the 2022 Irish Film And Television Academy (IFTA) awards, with 10 nominations each.

The Quiet Girl is an Irish-language drama telling the story of a young girl’s summer break away from her dysfunctional family in 1980s Ireland, when she stays with a foster couple. It is set to receive its premiere as the opening film at the Dublin International Film Festival tomorrow, and recently won the grand prize in the Generation Kplus strand at the Berlinale.

Scroll...

Nominations have been announced for this year’s Irish Film And TV Academy Awards (IFTAs). Scroll down for the full list.

Leading the way with ten apiece are Kenneth Branagh’s much-fancied awards contender Beflast and Irish-language feature An Cailín Ciúin, which recently won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Both titles are up for Best Film, alongside Deadly Cuts, Swan Song, Who We Love, and You Are Not My Mother. Of those six, four are debut features.

For Belfast, Branagh will also contend for the Best Director and Best Script prizes. The film is up for seven Oscars this year.

On the TV Side, crime drama Kin dominated the field with 13 nominations, including Best Drama, as well as director, script, actor (twice) and actress. Vikings:Valhalla, the Netflix sequel of the popular historical show, received seven noms, as did BBC show Hidden Assets.

Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” and Colm Bairéad “An Cailín Ciúin” lead nominations at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Academy Film and Drama award nominations with 10 nods across categories.

“Belfast” is nominated for best film, best director and script for Branagh, with a lead actor nod for Jude Hill, supporting actor recognitions for Ciarán Hinds and Jamie Dornan and a supporting actress nod for Caitríona Balfe, besides craft nominations.

“An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”), which won the grand prize at the Generation Kplus strand of the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival, was similarly recognized across the main categories.

“Kin” led the drama nominations with 13 nods, while “Vikings: Valhalla” and “Hidden Assets” had seven each and “Smother” five.

IFTA chief executive Áine Moriarty said: “What a spectacular line-up of nominees that have been shortlisted for Irish Academy Awards this year, after a record-breaking production year for the Irish industry. The work...

A strong line-up of new films by Irish filmmakers is being showcased at this week’s Galway Film Fleadh.

Long regarded as a festival that introduces emerging Irish talent, Galway Film Fleadh’s line-up this year is notable for the breadth of new names and stories.

Local and international demand for storytelling is also fuelling a growth in indigenous filmmaking in the Irish language and a number of new films are screening at the Fleadh which this week is running online from July 20-25.

Seán Breathnach’s Foscadh (Shelter), Damian McCann’s Doineann and Tomás Seoighe’s The Queen v...

The hybrid festival will showcase 11 world premieres.

Seán Breathnach’s Irish-language drama Foscadh, Ross Killeen’s music documentary Love Yourself Today and Graham Cantwell’s coming-of-age drama Who We Love are among several new Irish films making their world premiere at the hybrid Galway Film Fleadh which is running from July 20th to 25th.

The Fleadh will showcase 45 features, 11 of which are world premieres. The main physical venue will be an outdoor cinema in the city’s historic centre this year and many of the titles will also screen online along with the programme of industry events and filmmaker discussions.

Alison McGirr and Rachael Taylor in ‘Ladies in Black’ (Photo: Lisa Tomasetti).

Alison McGirr plays a discontented Sydney department store worker whose marriage has gone stale in Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black.

Although the comedy-drama is set in 1959, the actress believes it has a lot to say to contemporary audiences.

Adapted by Beresford and producer Sue Milliken from the late Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel ‘The Women in Black’, the plot follows Angourie Rice as Lisa, a shy 16-year-old who takes a holiday job in the department store.

Lisa meets a group of women known as the “ladies in black” and becomes a catalyst who changes their lives in the film which Sony is launching on 300 screens on September 20 .

McGirr’s character Patty is often troubled and irritable due to a disconnect with her hard-working and repressed husband Frank (Luke Pegler).

“Patty’s relationship has gone a bit stale...

Other winners include A Date For Mad Mary from Room producer Ed Guiney.

The 28th Galway Film Fleadh handed out its annual awards last night (July 10) and named Taika Waititi’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople as best international feature.

The ceremony took place after the Fleadh’s annual public interview, in which director Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) regaled a packed Town Hall Theatre.

The prize for best Irish feature was shared between Peter Foott’s The Young Offenders and Darren Thornton’s A Date For Mad Mary. The latter was co-produced by Ed Guiney, whose films include Oscar-winner Room, The Lobster and Frank.

The best Irish feature documentary was won by Frankie Fenton’s It’s Not Yet Dark, which centres on Simon Fitzmaurice, a talented young Irish film maker with motor neuron disease, as he embarks on making his first film through the use of his eyes and eye gaze technology.

It’s...

The Ifta nominated feature film 'Anton' has been released for rental under its international title 'Trapped' in the UK and Ireland. Released through High Fliers Films, the film will be available to buy in January 2012. The 2008 thriller, directed by Graham Cantwell (The Callback Queen), stars Gerard McSorley (Veronica Guerin), Anthony Fox (The General) and Laura Way (The Silence) and is produced by Patrick Clarke (Beyond the Pale) and Anthony Fox.

London based romantic comedy 'The Callback Queen', written and directed by Graham Cantwell (Trapped, Anton) has finished principal photography and has entered post production. The independent film stars Irish actors Amy Joyce Hastings (The Tudors, Little Deaths), Ger Ryan (Raw, Intermission) and Sean T. O'Meallaigh (Kings, Seacht). The story follows the exploits of Kate Loughlin played by Hastings who is an ambitious but unlucky actress on the cusp of her big break and is set in the cut throat world of the London film industry.

TV3 series 'The Guards' is currently in post-production in London's Four Corners. The series, made by Legend United productions in association with October Eleven Pictures has seen its director, Graham Cantwell (Anton) distance himself from the project citing his unhappiness "with how it was being steered" as his reason for leaving. 'The Guards' explores the real-life gritty workings of Ireland's law enforcement officers as experienced through three young characters – Diarmuid, Donal and Aiden. Ambitious and ruthless, the threesome will do anything to get the job done and secure a conviction. The series is being produced by Jonathan Figgis (3 Crosses) and was written and executive produced by Steven Aldridge (Soul Traces, Bedlam) for Legend United productions in association with October Eleven Pictures.

The Ifta nominated feature film, 'Anton', will be available to buy on DVD from Friday, December 4th nationwide. Anton', directed by Graham Cantwell (Trapped), is a thriller inspired by true events. After time spent at sea, Anton O'Neill returns to find that 1970's Ireland is a radically different place to the one he left behind. Northern Ireland is in flames, and civil unrest has spilled south of the border to his beloved home in County Cavan. Blinded by hatred and misguided patriotism Anton is led into an illicit world of violence and is forced to choose between his family and his country.