And that’s a wrap on Belfast Film Festival’s inaugural LONG SHORT WEEKEND!! Bringing together short filmmakers from throughout Ireland for film screenings, networking and sampling everything that BFF23 has to offer
Congratulations to the Screen Skills Film Skills Council Short Film Competition winner SOUND AND COLOUR dir. Emma Foley and produced by Pale Rebel Productions
With an honourable mention for THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN dir. Conor Kehelly
The Jury said:
“It was a pleasure to be invited to watch a day of fantastic filmmaking yesterday and we’d like to thank the festival for having us. It was a really tough decision and we discussed the merits of each film in depth.
Before we announce the winner, we would like to give an honourable mention to ‘The Final Nail in the coffin’ . We all loved it’s unique perspective, individuality and singular vision. Conor is a filmmaker to watch for sure.
The films were each exceptional and we would love to give several awards but unfortunately we can’t, so we had to reach a common ground on a film that hit home for each of us in a particular way. This film was executed beautifully in it’s sensitive and emotionally nuanced portrayal of returning home under extreme circumstances, and for the way it captures Irish family life in all it’s maddening repression, rich complexity and claustrophobia. The award for best short goes to ‘SOUND and COLOUR’ By Emma Foley.”
Congratulations to everyone INVOLVED and to all the filmmakers!
And the Winner of the LUMI Prize was EVERYTHING LOOKS SIMPLE FROM A DISTANCE dir. Conor Toner
The jury said:
“We are more than pleased to award “Everything Looks Simple From A Distance” with the LUMI award. Within the parameters of the LUMI award, we were looking for how the short engages young audiences and is innovative in its filmmaking, this short has ticked all the boxes.
We found this short to be impressive with its innovative take on a story set within the historical landscape of the Troubles. A fresh and exciting breath of life into an exhausted and abused cinematic period of our local history. Beautiful cinematography and shot in visually striking black and white, the short is a treat to watch. The monologue chopping between its varying locations, the rhythm and strength of the short is carried and maintained at each location by its powerhouse performance from Cailum Carragher.
The short and it’s over-the-top subject matter is cleverly effective with its engagement of young audiences. One man’s desperate plea for Northern Ireland to enter the space race in 1969 to bring our divided society together is ingenious and actually quite thought-provoking. While it is an incredulous thought to have given the historical circumstances but, it might have just worked, upon reflecting we certainly believed so.
Congratulations to Conor and all involved!”
