59th Cork Film Festival draws to a close amid news of approval for Academy Awards®

17th November 2014

Festival award winners announced at closing ceremony

Sunday, 16th November 2014: The Cork Film Festival’s winning Grand Prix Irish and Grand Prix International films will be eligible for Oscar® consideration, it was announced tonight at the closing gala of the 59th Cork Film Festival.
The winners, Grand Prix International Short More Than Two Hours / Bishtar az do sa’at, by Ali Asgari (Iran) and the Grand Prix Irish Short presented by RTÉ Cork, Anywhere But Here by John Hayes, are now approved to enter the long list for the Short Film competition of the 2016 Academy Awards®, as the Festival has this very week achieved the status of Academy qualifying festival.

Speaking about the announcement, James Mullighan, Creative Director of the Cork Film Festival, said: “It is such an honour to achieve this status and the winners of both our short film awards this year are worthy recipients of this opportunity. We look forward to supporting them all the way.”
The closing gala and awards ceremony of the 59th Cork Film Festival took place at Cork Opera House on Sunday night, with a special screening of a digitally restored version of the 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey taking place after the award winners were announced.

The highly anticipated Gradam Spiorad na Fhéile (Spirit of the Festival Award), which was inaugurated at the Festival this year, was won by The Tribe, by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Ukraine).
The Spirit of the Festival award honours films which take risks and push boundaries, and the first year of it saw The Tribe beat a very strong group of fellow nominees: Cherry Pie by Lorenz Merz (Switzerland), Hide and Seek by Joanna Coates (UK), El Futuro by Luis Lopez Carrasco (Spain), Yximalloo by Tadhg O’Sullivan and Feargal Ward (Ireland), and Manakamana by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez (UK, Nepal).

The Tribe is a powerful dramatic thriller, entirely in Russian sign language, with no subtitles, yet made for a hearing audience. The Gradam Spiorad na Fhéile Jury was comprised of filmmaker and photographer Conor Horgan (Ireland), the Cork Film Festival 2013 Grand Prix International winning filmmaker Martin Rath (Poland) and the Festival Director of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival Gráinne Humphreys (Ireland), who chaired the Jury.

Speaking about Gradam Spiorad na Fhéile, Mr Mullighan said: “The Cork Film Festival prides itself in celebrating filmmakers who find new and brave ways to tell great stories, and this Award is the first of its kind at the Cork Film Festival to recognise exactly that. The calibre of films in this category was exceptional, and the Tribe is a well deserving winner.”

The Irish Shorts Jury comprised Ana David (co-director Queer LisboaPortugal), Julie Kelleher (Ireland), chair, Niall McKay (USA), and also chose the winner of CorkShorts: Tadhg McSweeney, Painter – A Film Portrait, by Dónal Ó Céilleachair.

Of Anywhere But Here, winner of the Grand Prix Irish award, the jury commented that the film featured a mature and beautifully handled script about loss. The jury were especially taken with the kind and compassionate performances by two young actors, Doru Micu and Lisa Reilly, of young people struggling with loss and abandonment.

The Cork Film Festival Nomination for the 2015 European Film Academy Award was won by Eva Weber’s Field Study, while the Cork Film Festival Youth Jury award was presented to Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays.
Closing the festival, James Mullighan said: “The 59th Cork Film Festival displayed a previously unsurpassed depth of creativity and talent. It covered more than 180 films and events in just 10 days, bringing to Cork films of every genre, style and era. It has been a very successful festival, culminating in the announcement that it is now recognised as an Academy qualifying festival for the Short Film Awards”.

“We look forward to welcoming everyone back next year to celebrate the great occasion of the 60th year of the Cork Film Festival,” he added.

-ENDS-

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