The 18th Galway Film Fleadh closed Sunday night with a preview presentation ofwriter/director David Gleeson's second feature The Frontline, a crime drama about vulnerable Congolese immigrantsin
The Frontline was one of several new Irish features premiered at the event. JohnCarney's Once,a strong contender for festival success in coming months, is a deftly handledtale of a
Writer/director Niall Heery's Small EngineRepair also scored highly with the festival audience and took the Fleadh award for Best First Feature. Heery'sstory of the belated coming of age of four men, superficially friends, revealsa real backwoods
The festival and parallelpitching fair attracted numerous filmmakers, financiers and producers to
The annual Fleadh pitching competition, which attracted 180 entriesand is worth $6267 (£5,000) to the successful writer, went to Mark Wale for Physical Memory Dump, a dramaticexploration of just how dangerously close to the edge Dublin's bicycle couriersare prepared to go.
Among the Irish industrynews to emerge at the this year's event there was confirmation that MarianQuinn's 32A will begin filming in aweek's time, in Dublin and Sligo, with Jared Harris and Aidan Quinn headliningthe cast. And other features being lined up for Irish shoots later in the yearinclude Tommy Collins's Kings, Robin Swicord's MermaidSinging with Jessica Lange, and a Dublin-based autobiographical projectfrom Jim Sheridan.
The Irish Film &Television Academy was also re-launched during the Fleadhwith a strong recruiting drive and news that its annual awards ceremony is tomove from November to February next year, bringing it into line with the timingof similar events internationally.
Speaking after the closingceremonies, Miriam Allen, managing director of the Galway Film Fleadh said, "We are thrilled with the success of thisyear's Fleadh. We endeavour year after year to addnew dimensions to the programme and are always mindful of attracting newaudiences. This year's programme delivered on both these counts and we arealready looking forward to doing it all again in 2007".
Best Irish Short
Nun More Deadly, Dir: David O'Sullivan
Venom, Dir: John Hayes
Best First Irish Short
Joyriders, Dir: Rebecca Daly
The White Dress, Dir: Vanessa Gildea
Best Irish ShortDocumentary
Christy, Dir: Alex Gill
James, Dir: Fran Apprich
Best Irish Short Animation
Demon, Dir: Eoin Ryan
Badly Drawn Roy, Dir: Alan Shannon
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