ifta awards

Source: Macalla Teoranta / Element Pictures

‘Arracht’, ‘Rosie’

Tom Sullivan’s Great Famine drama Arracht and Paddy Breathnach’s homelessness story Rosie lead the film nominations at the 2020 Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards.

Arracht picked up 11 nominations from 15 feature film categories; with Rosie scoring nine.

Full IFTA 2020 nominations below

IFTA is finalising plans for a virtual 2020 awards ceremony in September; there will be no physical IFTA awards ceremony until April 2021. This year’s best film nominees have been split into two categories: five titles are nominated for best film 2019 and a further five have been nominated for best film 2020.

All other categories run as one group, covering both years; they have expanded from four to six nominees.

The Academy did not hold a ceremony in 2019 as part of a restructuring plan.

Arracht’s nominations include best film 2020, best actor for Dónall Ó Héalaí, best supporting actor for Dara Devaney, and two nods for Sullivan, in best director and best writer. It debuted at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia last November; it recently played at the online Galway Film Fleadh.

Rosie is nominated in best film 2019, best director for Paddy Breathnach, best writer for Roddy Doyle, and best actor for Sarah Greene. It is produced by Element Pictures and premiered at Toronto in 2018, before opening in the UK and Ireland in March 2019.

Also scoring multiple film nominations are The Hole In The Ground (seven); Black 47 (six); Calm With Horses, Ordinary Love (five); and Float Like A Butterfly, Never Grow Old, and The Dig (four).

TV nods 

Sophie Petzal’s crime drama Blood leads the TV drama nominations with five, including best drama and two best director slots for Lisa Mulcahy and Hannah Quinn.

Produced by Element and the UK’s Company Pictures, it premiered on Virgin Media One in Ireland in October 2018, going on to Channel 5 in the UK the following month.

Seven of the nominees have previously been named Screen Stars of Tomorrow, receiving 12 nominations between them. Jessie Buckley and Niamh Algar picked up three nominations each: 2017 Star Buckley in lead actress – film, lead actress – drama, and supporting actress – drama, with 2018 Star Algar in supporting actress – film, lead actress – drama, and supporting actress – drama. Writer Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses) and actors Aisling Franciosi, Seána Kerslake, Barry Keoghan, and Ruth Negga are the other Stars to be nominated.

IFTA 2020 film nominations

Best film 2019

Black ’47
Float Like A Butterfly
Rosie
The Dig
The Hole In The Ground

Best film 2020

A Bump Along The Way
Arracht
Calm With Horses
Extra Ordinary
Ordinary Love

Best director

Paddy Breathnach - Rosie
Nora Twomey - The Breadwinner
Lance Daly - Black ’47
Tom Sullivan - Arracht
Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman - Extra Ordinary
Lee Cronin - The Hole In The Ground
Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn - Ordinary Love

Best script 

Roddy Doyle - Rosie
Owen McCafferty - Ordinary Love
Joe Murtagh - Calm With Horses
Mark O’Halloran - Rialto
Tom Sullivan - Arracht
Carmel Winters - Float Like A Butterfly

Best actress

Jessie Buckley - Wild Rose
Aisling Franciosi - The Nightingale
Bronagh Gallagher - A Bump Along The Way
Sarah Greene - Rosie
Seána Kerslake - The Hole In The Ground
Saoirse Ronan - Little Women

Best actor 

Dara Devaney - Finky
Moe Dunford - The Dig
Liam Neeson - Ordinary Love
Dónall Ó Héalaí - Arracht
Tom Vaughan Lawlor - Rialto
Barry Ward - Extra Ordinary

Best supporting actress

Niamh Algar - Calm With Horses
Catriona Balfe - Le Mans ’66
Seána Kerslake - Dublin Oldschool
Charlie Murphy - Dark Lies The Island
Emily Taaffe - The Dig
Catherine Walker - We Ourselves

Best supporting actor

Lorcan Cranitch - The Dig
Dara Devaney - Arracht
Barry Keoghan - Calm With Horses
Ian Lloyd-Anderson - Dublin Oldschool
Stephen Rea - Black ’47
David Wilmot - Ordinary Love

The George Morrison feature documentary award

Gaza
I, Dolours
Katie
The Image You Missed
The Lonely Battle Of Thomas Reid
When All Is Ruin Once Again 

Best cinematography

Tom Comerford - The Hole In The Ground
Andrew McConnel - Gaza
Kate McCullough - Arracht
Piers McGrail - Never Grow Old
Robbie Ryan - Marriage Story
Cathal Watters - Rosie

Best costume design

Joan Bergin - The Catcher Was A Spy
Clodagh Deegan - Arracht
Triona Lillis - Float Like A Butterfly
Eimear Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh - The Rhythm Section
Susan O’Connor Cave - Vikings
Louise Stanton - Rosie

Best editing

Colin Campbell - The Hole In The Ground
Dermot Diskin - Never Grow Old
Michael Harte - Three Identical Strangers
Tony Kearns - Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Mick Mahon - Gaza
Úna Ní Dhonghaíle - Rosie

Best original music

Kíla - Arracht
Stephen Mckeon - The Hole In The Ground
Stephen Rennicks - The Little Stranger
Brian Byrne - Black ’47
Ray Harman - Blood
Stephen Rennicks - Rosie

Best production design

Tom Conroy - The Rhythm Section
Damien Creagh - Calm With Horses
Conor Dennison - The Hole In The Ground
John Leslie - Never Grow Old
Padraig O’Neil - Arracht
Anna Rackard - The Trial Of Christine Keeler 

Best sound

Brendan Rehill, Alan Scully - Arracht
Fionáin Higgins, Robert Flanagan - Black ’47
Ronan Hill, Danny Crowley, Simon Kerr - Game Of Thrones
Aza Hand, Karen O’Mahony, Patrick Drummond - Never Grow Old
Hugh Fox, Niall Brady - Rosie
Steve Fanagan, Niall Brady - The Little Stranger 

Best makeup & hair

Niamh O’Loan - Arracht
Linda Gannon, Liz Byrne - Black ’47
Louise Myler - Finky
Polly Mckay - Ordinary Love
Dee Corcoran, Tom McInerney - Vikings
Eileen Buggy, Jennifer Hegarty - Vita & Virginia 

Best VFX

Jim O’Hagan, Ronan Gantly - Game Of Thrones
Ed Bruce - The Favourite
Ed Bruce, Jim O’hagan - The Irishman
Ed Bruce, Nicholas Murphy - We Have Always Lived In The Castle

Short Film (Live Action)

Bainne
Ciúnas (Silence)
Detainment
El Hor
Here’s Looking At You Kid!
Inhale
Sister This
The Grass Ceiling
The Vasectomy Doctor
Welcome To A Bright White Limbo

Short Film (Animation)

Outside The Box
Streets Of Fury
The Bird & The Whale
The Dream Report
The Overcoat