Fame calls for students after scooping short film ‘Oscar’

FILM making students at a special school were on top of the world after collecting their own Oscar award yesterday.

De Mobile Phone, a five-minute film created by the senior class at School of The Divine Child in Cork, scooped the music category prize at the National FÍS Film Festival.

The event in the Helix at Dublin City University saw more than 20 schools around the country pick up awards for their endeavours in the cinematic field.

Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch, a native of Co Louth, was in the audience to show support.

But the loudest cheer went up for the lads from the school at the Lavanagh Centre in Ballintemple when they were announced as winners.

“We didn’t know beforehand at all that we had won to be honest. We got a real surprise. I’d love to do much more film making,” said 17-year-old David Downey.

He played a plasterer in a scene showing a group of workers talking on their phones on a building site. His classmate, Kevin Downey — no relation — played the part of the foreman and was equally excited about their success.

“We were thrilled to win, it was very exciting,” the 16-year-old from Coachford said.

Their teacher Mary O’Hanlon said they expected major celebrations when they return to school this morning.

“It’s been a great way of mixing different parts of the curriculum with things like music, art and crafts for costumes and props and also for the students’ language development,” she said.

The idea sprang from a song called De Mobile Phone which the senior classes recorded with music teacher Tony Hunter last year. They decided to develop it into a film which was recorded in a Cork shopping centre and in the school, with the song as the soundtrack.

Other prizes went to pupils of Scoil an Chlochair in Oughterard, Co Galway for their futuristic set design in Poppy’s Treasure and Scoil Chríost Rí in Ennis, Co Clare won the camera and cinematography category with their film, Dear Mr Examiner.

Children at more than 100 primary schools wrote, directed and produced their own films, supported by the National Centre for Technology in Education for the third FÍS (Film in Schools) project. The 25 films selected for yesterday’s festival were chosen at regional screenings organised by local education centres, many of them allowing the young movie makers to see their work on real cinema screens.