Pupils net top film award

Meet the next generation of Oscar winners.

Schoolchildren who shot a film portraying the harsh realities of house repossession through the eyes of a child have won a top award.

The 22 pupils of Cappabue NS in West Cork — one of Ireland’s smallest national schools — were celebrating big time yesterday after winning the junior filmmakers category at the Junior Film Fleadh in Galway.

“We’re absolutely over the moon and delighted,” principal Norma Healy said.

She paid tribute to the children, fellow teacher Olive Creed, and drama teacher Victor Hayes.

Their film, Lost Property, features a brother and sister who overhear their parents — under mortgage pressure from the banks and facing eviction — talking about losing their home.

In their innocence, the children think the house has simply been lost and they and their friends set out to find it.

The film shows the children putting up posters and offering their pocket money as a reward for anybody who can find it.

Gar O’Brien, the festival programmer and a member of the judging panel, said the film was a deserving winner.

“Sometimes in competitions like this, it’s hard to tell where the kids’ work starts and where the adults got involved,” he said.

“But this was a story that came from the kids and was made by the kids.

“It was a good, sophisticated story that was told very well — giving a child’s view of the economic crisis.”

Lost Property has already won the Junior Young Filmmaker Award at the Fresh Film Festival in Limerick, and was screened at the REC for Kids film festival in Berlin.

This latest win means it will now be screened at the Galway Film Fleadh next July.

And Oscar-winning director and producer, David Puttnam, has agreed to launch the film at its world premiere in Bantry’s Cinemax next April.