Foyle Film Festival has wrapped for another year with the annual Light in Motion awards ceremony, sponsored by City of Derry Crystal, celebrating the best in Irish and international shorts films, documentaries and animations that were shown over the five day event.
Since 1999 the Festival, based in Derry~Londonderry, has been recognised as a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards Short Film Category. The winners of the Best International Short Film, ‘Out of the Village’ and Best Irish Short Film, ‘How Was Your Day?’ will both qualify for consideration.
‘Out of the Village’ was shot in West Africa and explores the social and cultural impact of the Ebola epidemic from the perspective of an orphaned brother and sister. The film, directed by Jonathan Stein, was part-funded through a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year and has been screening across the world to critical acclaim.
The live action short film, ‘How Was Your Day’, directed by renowned Irish filmmaker, Damien O’Donnell, stars Eileen Walsh as a woman who is excited about the approaching birth of her first child. The script, also written by O’Donnell, was adapted from a short story by Nollaig Rowan.
The award for Best Animation went to ‘The Story of Percival Pilts’, a stop motion animated film narrated by New Zealand actor and comedian Mark Hadlow and made by Janette Goodey and John Lewis.
‘The Mind of Mark DeFriest’ from director Gabriel London and ‘No Greater Love’ were joint winners of the Best Documentary award.
Bernie McLaughlin, director and programmer of the Foyle Film Festival, said: “The calibre of entries to this year’s competition was extremely high and we’re delighted and honoured that some filmmakers chose the Foyle Film Festival to screen their film for the very first time. We wish all our 51 competitors the very best in their careers going forward.”
Following the award ceremony in Brunswick Moviebowl, festival-goers enjoyed the Irish premiere of ‘Grandma’, starring Lily Tomlin as a sharp-tongued, taboo-breaking granny who comes out fighting for her pregnant teenage granddaughter (Julia Garner).
Foyle Film Festival is a flagship project of the Nerve Centre, funded by DCAL through Northern Ireland Screen and by Derry City and Strabane District Council.
