It's been a super week for Irish film with a slew of awards, nominations and accolades for Irish talent. While the triumphs keep coming for 2015 releases, 2016 is also shaping up to be a great year with two Irish films already announced for the Sundance Film Festival.
This week it was announced that two Irish movies, Mammal by Rebecca Daly and The Land of the Enlightened by Pieter-Jan De Prue, will have their world premieres at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January. Both movies where supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board.
Mammal, starring Rachel Griffiths, Barry Keoghan and Michael McElhatton will take its place at the festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, while feature documentary, The Land of the Enlightened, directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue and produced by Morgan Bushe for Fastnet Films, which will screen in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Meanwhile at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Brooklyn star Saoirse Ronan was honoured with the Best Actress Award. Previous recipients of this esteemed award include Marion Cotillard and Cate Blanchett.
Also in the Big Apple, the National Board of Review has hailed Brie Larson as Best Actress for her performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, while her co-star Jacob Trembley got a nod for Breakthrough Performance. The Board also named Room as one of their nine top films. The film will be released in Irish cinemas on January 15, 2016
And the accolades keep coming.
Ronan is set to be honoured with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award alongside Larson at the 2016 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). This is the first time in the festival's history that the award has been jointly awarded. Previous winners of the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award include Charlize Theron (Monster), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). The 2016 festival will take place from February 3 -13.
At the Satellite Awards, which take place in Los Angeles days before the Academy Awards on February 21, Room has secured four nominations in the categories of Best Film, Best Director (Lenny Abrahamson), Best Actress (Brie Larson) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Emma Donoghue). Brooklyn has been nominated in the categories of Best Film and Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan).
And topping off a bumper week of success IMDb’s Col Needham has announced his top ten films of 2015, featuring no less than three IFB-supported films, Room, Brooklyn and The Lobster.
Fingers crossed the Irish winning streak will continue at the Moet British Independent Film Awards which take place in London this Sunday. Irish co-production The Lobster has received no less than seven nominations with Brooklyn being nominated in five categories in addition to a nomination each for Room and Corin Hardy’s The Hallow. Michael Fassbender has been nominated for Best Actor for his role in Macbeth, while Brendan Gleeson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Suffragette.
