Irish producer Rory Dungan and Belfast-born actress Bríd Brennan are celebrating after each picking up awards at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which concluded over the weekend.
Brennan and fellow actress Andrea Riseborough shared the Michael Powell Award for best performances in a British feature, for their roles as daughter and mother with conflicted loyalties in Oscar-winning director James Marsh's (Man On Wire) ‘Shadow Dancer,’ which was shot in Ireland last year and received its UK premiere at the festival.
Dungan, meanwhile, won the award for best story pitch at the festival’s Talent Lab event, which sees renowned international directors, producers and screenwriters pass on their knowledge to up-and-coming filmmakers.
Dungan took the award for his feature film project, ‘The Third Wave’. The feature is a science fiction/horror following the journey of Senan Browne, a man cured of an aggressive virus, who faces the prospect of re-adjusting to a new society.
It is to be written and directed by David Freyne (Passing, The Man in 301) and produced by Dungan (If I Should Fall Behind) and Rachael O'Kane (Passing, The Mill) for Tilted Pictures.
Tilted Pictures' short film ‘The Tree’ written and directed by Freyne and produced by O'Kane for the Irish Film Board's Short Short scheme will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh next month.
The production company are currently in prep on Morgan Bushe's ‘Doghouse’, which will be produced by Dungan for the IFB's Signatures short film scheme.
’Shadow Dancer,’ which tells the story of a Belfast mother who turns MI5 informant, will also be screened at this month’s Galway Film Fleadh, which takes place over July 10-15.
The feature – which was filmed in Dublin last year – was co-produced by Dublin’s Element Pictures, London’s Unanimous Entertainment and France’s WildBunch Production. It also stars Clive Owen (Inside Man), Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland), Aidan Gillen (Love/Hate) and Domhnall Gleeson (Sensation, True Grit). It was funded by the BBC, BFI, UK Tax Credit, WildBunch, Section 481 and the Irish Film Board.
