Best Intentions wins Kerry
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Brian Durnin’s Best Intentions has won the €5000 prize for Best Director/Best Film at the Kerry Film Festival. The €1000 Audience Award went to Michael Kelly’s short film Small Benner’s while Declan Cassidy’s Whatever Turns You On took home the €500 Best Irish Narrative Short award.
Kelly said, “It’s fantastic to show a film about Kerry people to a Kerry audience and have them respond so warmly.
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Brenda Fricker accepted the inaugural Maureen O’Hara award from Jim Sheridan. She said, “It’s a pity that my Mom isn’t here to see me collect this award because Maureen O’ Hara was one of her favorites. But if she was, I know what she would say, ‘Well they didn’t give it to you for your looks!’”
Alan Early’s Parklife won Best Documentary Short, Tomer Eshed’s Our Wonderful Nature won Best Animated Short while a special Children’s Audience Award was given to Steph Green’s New Boy.
Also announced were the winning films from the Take 2 Film Festival: Best Animated Short – Christian Effenberger’s Bad Habbit Little Rabbit (Germany); Best Documentary Short – Anouk Dominguez’s Aqua Viva (Switzerland); Best Irish Short – Ged Murray’s Tin Man; and Best International Short – Irena Skoroc’s Farewell (Croatia).
The festival screened over a 100 films to about 4,500 people throughout Kerry locations like Tralee, Listowel, Killarney, Dingle, Sneem, Waterville and Camp, marking a significant increase on the previous year’s attendance.
Naman Ramachandran cineuropa.org