The twelve nominated short films competing for the 2007 Diversions Short Film Award have been announced. Included in the lineup is IFTA winning short ‘Joyriders’, festival favourite ‘the Faeries of Blachkheath Woods’ and Ruairi Robinson’s futuristic short ‘The Silent City’.
The twelve shortlisted films will battle it out for the cash prize worth €5,000 and production facilities at Filmbase worth a further €5,000.
The shorts begin screening on Saturday 9th June in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square. The shorts will precede the Jameson Movies on the Square feature presentation each week. Previous winners of the Diversions Short Film Award include Tom Cosgrove’s ‘Rógairí/Villains’, Brendan Muldowney’s ‘The Ten Steps’ and Daniel O’Hara’s ‘Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom’.
The 2007 lineup:
Sat 9th June: Teeth(2m10’)
John Kennedy/ Ruairi O’Brien
A short “last laugh” take of 2 old friends, their teeth, and a series of events that leaves them lost for words…
Sat 16th June: The Sound of People (6m)
Simon Fitzmaurice
The story of a moment in the life of an eighteen year old boy, standing on the brink of his life and death.
Sat 23rd June: Final Journey (3m15’)
Brendan Muldowney
“Isn’t a shame that everything must die. But when sweet life passed on, where do our souls then fly?”.
Sat 30th June: The Faeries of Blackheath Woods (4m)
Ciarán Foy
Something peculiar happened that day. Curious Melissa was enchanted by some real Faeries. Ignoring her mother Melissa followed them down into Blackheath Woods… Melissa never came back.
Sat 7th July: The Widow (15m)
Aideen McCarthy
An in-depth study about the five stages of the grieving process as Helen, a wife and mother, returns home after a funeral seemingly unaffected by any sense of loss.
Sat 14th July: The Silent City (7m30’)
Ruairi Robinson
On the outskirts of a once great city, time is running out as a soldier calls for help for his dying comrades.
Sat 21st July: The White Dress (3m40’)
Vanessa Gildea
The story of a little girl who is close to falling through the cracks of an upwardly mobile society. Her innocence protects her from the world at home.
Sat 28th July: Mebollix (10m30’)
Simon Gibney
Despite dire warnings about botched surgery and divine retribution, Tony Doyle caves in to the demands of his wife Doreen and gets a vasectomy. It seems however, that the scare stories were right as Doyle begins his post-op nightmarish journey home.
Sat 4th August: Forgiveness (9m)
Barrie Dowdall/ Jamie O’Neill
The story of Erskine Childers and his instructions to his young son that he forgive those who signed his death warrant in 1922.
Sat 11th August: A Lonely Sky (12m30’)
Nick Ryan
Set in 1947 when current scientific thinking believed there was a limit to how fast a man could travel, Jack Reilly, a test pilot decides to break the sound barrier.
Sat 18th August: Chicken Soup (7m41’)
Farah Abushwesha
Based on a true event and inspired by the director’s fathers short stories, Chicken Soup is a heart warming story of Khal a young Arab, whose need for independence and to belong in western society has alienated him from his father.
Sat 25th August: Joyriders (15m38’)
Rebecca Daly
As ten year old Kylie struggles with grief she discovers that imagination can be more powerful than reality.
