Short film ‘The Morse Collectors’, directed by David Cooke, has picked up four awards at last week's HDFest in Los Angeles – considered as the he world's biggest festival, devoted to purely HD films, and NI short ‘James’ will screen at Sundance in Jan.
‘The Morse Collectors’ won the Best Director and Best Cinematography gongs at the HDFest, and received Honourable Mentions in the Best Short and Best Screenplay category for writer Pól Mag Uidhir.
Produced by Crawford Anderson-Dillon and Gary Sugarman, ‘The Morse Collectors’ is set in wartime 1942 and tells the tale of two children living in Northern Ireland. The children discover that their home is receiving war-time messages in Morse Code through unusual mediums such as dripping taps and creaking floorboards. The 15 minute short stars Katie Boyle, Oisin O'Connell and Sandra O'Connell.
‘The Morse Collectors’ has screened at many international festivals including the Cannes Short Film Corner, the Galway Film Fleadh, the San Diego International Children’s Film Festival, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Shortfest, and collected a first prize at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
Adding to the list of Irish Sundance selections, the short film ‘James’, directed by Conor Clements, will screen at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The short explores how a young man grapples with the impulses and thoughts about being gay. It will join Tony Donoghue’s short ‘A Film from My Parish: 6 Farms’ who are among the 96 films selected for the Shorts Competition from 5,632 submissions. NI feature ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ will also screen.
