Screen success: final credits roll as film festival picks winners

THE final credits rolled at the 51st Cork Film Festival last night with more than 30,000 admissions recorded by the organisers over the past eight days.

But before the closing gala screening of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette brought another successful running of the event to a close, festival director Mick Hannigan had the duty of announcing this year’s award winners to the audience at Cork Opera House.

The international jury chose the entry of French director Jean-Gabriel Periot, Even if She Had Been a Criminal, as winner of the best international short film award for its clever sensibility, use of footage and incredible work in sound.

They nominated Never Like the First Time, directed by Jonas Odell from Sweden for the Prix UIP and to represent the festival at the European Film Awards.

The best Irish short film was Ciaran Foy’s The Faeries of Blackheath Wood, with special mention from the jury for child actress Katie Keogh. The animated Wednesday won Sam Keogh the Claire Lynch Award for Irish shorts by first-time time directors.

Rossa Mullin’s Words Into Silence, a portrait of the late poet and Irish Examiner journalist Seán Dunne, picked up the Made in Cork Award, with special mention given to Peter Gleeson’s Ruby La Mer Delivers for its engaging structure and surreal magic.

The Youth Jury Award and the Audience Award for international short went to Scottish director Alice Nelson’s A Map with Gaps, recounting her father’s journey through early 1970s Russia. David O’Sullivan’s Nun More Deadly was the audience selection as best Irish short of the festival.

Other winners were: Festival Award — Le Volets/The Shutters (France); Outlook (Lesbian and Gay Film Programme) Award — Christy directed by Alex Gill, and the Gradam Gael Linn for best Irish language short — Marion agus an Banphrionsa, directed by Melanie Clark Pullen.