Frank Berry’s The Lost Children Of Tuam won best Irish film at the Galway Film Fleadh 2026, while Rebekah Fortune’s Learning To Breathe Under Water took home the audience award.
The Lost Children Of Tuam is based on the true story of history enthusiast Catherine Corless and the dark discovery she makes while researching the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway. Element Pictures and Liam Neeson are among the producers.
An extra festival screening was added to the oversubscribed world premiere.
Rebekah Fortune’s Learning To Breathe Under Water took home the audience award. Rory Kinnear, Maria Bakalova and Ezra Carlisle star in the film about a father struggling to raise his son and deal with the grief of his wife’s death. His life take a turn when a Bulgarian au-pair enters their lives.
The film shot entirely in Galway, produced by the UK’s Shudder Films and Ireland’s Wildcard, and co-produced by Galway-based Eiru Film, Dutch outfit KeyFilm and Wales’s OneWave Films. It premiered at the Karlovy International Film Festival earlier this month.
Best Irish debut feature went to Dallan Shovlin’s dark Christmas heist comedy You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead, while the Bingham Ray New Talent Award went to Peter Young, the Northern Irish director of the opening night film, Our House.
Ivona Juka’s Croatian drama Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, set in Yugoslavia in the 1950s, won the best international feature prize.
On the documentary front, joint winners of the Irish prize were Oisín Mistéil’s Try, about a mixed-ability rugby team, and Rob Dennis, Alan Bradley and Sarah Jones’ The S.U., which follows the University of Galway student union across two years. Xackery Irving’s Brace for Oblivion, about Ukrainian citizens turned soldiers, won the international doc prize.
“The response to this year’s Galway Film Fleadh has been extraordinary,” said festival director Miriam Allen. “We experienced record attendances across both the festival and the Galway Film Fair, with audiences embracing Irish and international cinema in remarkable numbers. The calibre of filmmaking on display this year has been exceptional.”
Galway Film Fleadh 2026 winners
Best Irish film
The Lost Children Of Tuam
Dir. Frank Berry
Audience award
Learning To Breathe Under Water
Dir. Rebekah Fortune
Best Irish first feature
You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead
Dir. Dallan Shovlin
Best Irish feature documentary (joint winners)
Try dir. Oisín Mistéil
The S.U
Dirs. Rob Dennis, Alan Bradley, Sarah Jones
Best independent Irish film
Hollow Trees
Dir. Cathal Fitzpatrick
Best international film
Beautiful Evening Beautiful Day
Dir. Ivona Juka
Best international documentary
Brace For Oblivion
Dir. Xackery Irving
Bingham Ray New Talent Award
Peter Young for Our House
Galway Film Fair awards
Best marketplace project – Fat (Alice Productions)
Best marketplace documentary project – Dances With Whales (Oxytocin Productions)
Audience design award – Violent Delights
Pitching award – The Ruin Of The Earth (Yannick Janey)
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