Students at IADT's Nationl Film School (NFS), Darragh Duffy and Narayan van Maele’s respective filmmaking talent has lead to nominations at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Student Televison Awards. Darragh’s animation ‘Pest’ and Narayan’s short fiction, ‘Aunt’ will compete at the awards held on May 7th.
Darragh Duffy's ‘Pest’ is in a shortlist of three Animation nominees for Undergraduate Animation award. ‘Pest’ sees a lone farmer, in a struggle with a large flock of crows, who makes one last attempt to be rid of the troublesome pests. When this fails, help arrives from a most unlikely source. Darragh’s short will face competition from ‘Lullaby’ by Nick White and team in the Arts University College, Bournemouth and ‘Old Habits Die Hard’ from Einar Eide, Lars Ellingbo and team from the University of Teeside.
Where fiction is concerned Narayan van Maele's ‘Aunt’ (produced by David Lester Mooney) is nominated in the Undergraduate category. Set during the 1970s in the West of Ireland, ‘Aunt’ explores the effects of an unplanned pregnancy on a family on the day of the baby’s christening. The other projects in the category are ‘Choreomania’ by Louis Paxton, Stuart Ewan and Anna Chaney from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and ‘Tears of the Son’ by Tom Coldrick, Emma Schofield, Dean Threadgold and team from the University of Westminster.
The NFS won the overall Best Undergraduate Fiction Award two years ago with Vincent Gallagher's ‘Bright Idea’. The work of both Darragh and Narayan have been chosen for competition at the RTS Awards show following wins in both the category of Best Animation and that of Best Fiction at the Republic of Ireland section of the RTS Student Television Awards held in RTÉ in February. Comedian, Tom Deacon will host the RTS ceremony at London’s Barbican on May, 7th. For a full list of shortlisted projects click here.
