Shortlist is family affair for Gleeson

SCREEN star Brendan Gleeson and his two actor sons, Domhnall and Brian, have been shortlisted in separate categories in the Irish Film and TelevisionAwards.

The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) announced crime drama Love/Hate is up for a possible 10 awards at its eighth annual ceremony, to be held in Dublin on Saturday February 12, while Juanita Wilson’s Bosnian-set movie drama As If I Am Not There has six nominations.

In the film acting categories, Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson are nominated for their performances in the Irish gangster comedy Perrier’s Bounty, and both Colin Farrell and Saoirse Ronan are up for their supporting roles in Peter Weir’s The Way Back.

However the academy had to merge two categories because of the inadequate number of lead actress submissions in the film category.

Amy Huberman’s lead performance in the feature film Rewind will be judged against television’s lead actresses Ruth Bradley (Love/Hate), Orla Brady(Mistresses), Sarah Flood (Fair City) and Charlene McKenna (Raw).

Aine Moriarty, IFTA chief executive said the Irish film and television industry continued to produce a remarkable standard of work despite difficult circumstances in the Irish economy in 2010.

“Audiences in Ireland and around the world consistently respond to the work produced and made by our homegrown creative talents and, alongside many of our industry greats, I am pleased to see so many exciting new names in the shortlist. Long may it continue.”

Meanwhile Fair City writer Hilary Reynolds receives her first IFTA nomination, as do the soap opera’s stars Sarah Flood and Eamon Morrissey.

Other first-time nominees in acting include rising Irish talent Robert Sheehan (Love/Hate) and brothers Domhnall Gleeson (When Harvey Met Bob) and Brian Gleeson (Love/Hate).

Elsewhere RTÉ’s Operation Transformation — the final series presented by the late Gerry Ryan — is nominated in the factual category alongside Reeling In The Years, The Eagles Return and TV3’s flagship morning show Ireland AM.

TV3’s The Apprentice will look to make it three-for-three in 2011 as it features in the shortlist for entertainment programme for the third year in a row.