Well, the Fastnet Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday night and seemed to go down a treat with most people. For a four day festival there were a lot of shorts and events to choose from. Below I’m just posting up a list of the winners and references to some of the short films screened, and a piece on the Jim Sheridan interview which took place on the Friday night. Hopefully this will be of interest to those who didn’t make it down to West Cork too! Feel free to comment; there’s already plenty feedback from people on the fest at an earlier post here.
Firstly here is a list of the award winners, which can also be seen on the Fastnet MySpace page:
Best of Festival: ‘An Cosc‘ directed by Vincent Gallagher
Best Drama: ‘Penny‘ directed by Paddy O’Shea
Best Cinematography: ‘Tart‘ directed by Mairtin De Barra
Best Use of Music: ‘Of Best Intentions‘ directed by Brian Durnin
Best Comedy: ‘Hammerhead‘ directed by Sam Donovan
Best Director: ‘Play‘ directed by Muriel d’Ansembourg
Best Documentary: ‘The Stolen Generation‘ by Kim Houghton and Pól O Conghaile
Best Experimental/Animated Film: ‘Tomato Soup‘ by Paul O’ Brien
Best Screenplay: ‘The Escort‘ by Clare Holman
Sadly, the only award-winning film which I actually saw at the festival was ‘Tomato Soup’ but that in itself was a good short to catch. It uses stop motion animation to tell the tale of an old man rejected by his family. The animator, Paul O’ Brien, recently had another short about Seamus the Dog chosen as a music video for Coldplay’s ‘Lost’. Below is ‘Tomato Soup‘ in full as taken from Paul O’ Brien’s YouTube channel:
Jim Sheridan brought three films with him on Friday night for the ‘Audience with Jim Sheridan’ event. The first was an impressive short entitled ‘Take it Back’ directed by Vito Nikçi. Shot entirely in one take, it plays out, in reverse action, the story of a man who had shot another man, and then culminates in a clever twist. It doesn’t seem to be available to watch online but it’s certainly one to keep an eye out for. Secondly, Sheridan showed us a short by his daughter Kirsten, called ‘Patterns’, an account of how a young autistic boy, Tommy, sees the world in patterns with only his younger brother, Jimmy, really understanding the frustrations in his life. Sheridan then finished up with a student short, a typical ‘will they, won’t they, boy meets girl scenario set in a NY flat. He screened this so as to point out the mistakes that young filmmakers so often make (such as placing a glaring white fridge in the background of a scene), but his plans to dispel advice to upcoming directors went out the window somewhat as the interviewer, Greg Dyke questioned him on other matters which led to a rambling discussion about film. Nevertheless, Sheridan touched on a number of interesting topics such as the director/actor bond (he has a good connection with Daniel Day Lewis himself), the role of the father in Irish film which is so often negatively portrayed, and the difficulties faced in distributing Irish film in Britain and the US.
Finally, Team D.A.D.D.Y., a duo comprising of Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman discussed how they gradually built a reputation for themselves as music video directors, beginning in the days of No Disco when they would create animated vids while sitting at their kitchen table. One of their most famous videos is for Irish band Jape’s ‘Floating’, which uses a slow motion cam to capture the detailed smashing of fruit, but it is this vid for Bloc Party’s ‘One Month Off’ (see below) which I found delightful! Go check out their very cool site at teamdaddy.com.
The Stub 
that bloc party video is brilliant!