Patrick's Day, Glassland joint winners at Galway Film Fleadh

The annual awards ceremony took place before the screening of the festival’s closing film An Bronntanas.

Patrick’s Day world premiered at SXSW earlier this year. It tells the story of a schizophrenic young man (Moe Dunford) who tries to build a relationship with a flight attendant. Barrett’s follow up to Pilgrim Hill stars Toni Collette, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter and centres around alcoholism.

The festival’s Galway Hooker Awards were given to Irish actor Brenda Fricker, whose latest film A Long Way From Home was screened during t festival, and to animation powerhouse Brown Bag Films in recognition of their success as Irish animators on the international stage, including such successes as Doc McStuffins and two Oscar-nominated shorts.

In other awards, Frank Berry’s I Used to Live Here picked up the Best Irish First Feature prize.

The Best International Feature Award went to Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child.

Whilst the Best International First Feature Award was presented to Simon Blake for Still.

Sinead O Brien’s Blood Fruit and Aoife Kelleher’s One Million Dubliners were named joint winners of the Best Irish Feature Documentary Award.

In the Best International Feature Doc category, the top prize went to Mark Titus for The Breach.

African Pride, directed by Laura Fletcher, was named Best Human Rights Feature.

Producer AnneMarie Naughton (The Canal) was the recipient of the Bingham Ray New Talent Award in association with Magnolia Pictures. She fought off competition from actor Moe Dunford (Patricks Day), director Niall Heery (Gold), actor Dara Devaney (An Brontannas) and actress Tara Breathnach (A Nightingale Falling).

The Pitching Award went to Cian McGarrigle for his pitch 12-Gauge Withdrawal.

Shorts winners

A qualifying festival for the Academy Awards’ short film category, Galway recognized a range of shorts. Winners included:

The James Horgan Award for Best Animation - Fresh Cut Grass, dir Robert Cullen

The Tiernan McBride Award for Best Short Drama in association with Network Ireland Television – Rockmount, dir Dave Tynan.

The Donal Gilligan Award for Best Cinematography in a short film - D.O.P Patrick Jordan for Volkswagen Joe.

Best first short animation award – A Girl’s Best Friend, dir Clare Carroll

Best First Short Drama award – The Swing, dir Damien Dunne

Best Short Documentary Award – joint winners – The Sisters, dir Allish Sarah Flaherty and Inez – A Challenging Woman, dir Eimhear O’Neill and Trevor Birney