Lance Daly's Kisses took the laurels for Best Irish Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh in a year when the category was hotly contested by an unprecedented 14 Irish dramatic features, contenders among them being Ivan Kavanagh's Our Wonderful Home, Ian Fitzgibbon's A Film With Me in It and Rick Larkin's Satellites & Meteorites.

The Galway Film Fleadh culminated in a day marked by standing ovations for veteran actor Peter O'Toole and a hard-fought pitching contest worth Euros 3,000 to the winner and judged by Bill Pullman, Bingham Ray and former Irish Film Board chairperson Lelia Doolan.

Barbara Deignan's pitch, The Sunshine Group, a comedy based on her own experience at a bereavement group for teenagers, beat off tough competition from comedies pitched by Hugh Travers, Nicola Depuys, and Eamon Quinlan, and a psychological drama pitched by Screen InternationalStar of Tomorrow, Virginia Gilbert.

Winners 2008 Galway Film Fleadh

Best Irish Feature
Kisses
Director Lance Daly
Producer Macdara Kelleher

Best First Feature
Peacefire
Director Macdara Vallely
Producers Chris Martin, Sarah Perry

Best Feature Documentary
Anvil! The Story of Anvil

The Pitching Award
Barbara Deignan for her pitch The Sunshine Group

Best Irish Short Film
Martin
Directed by Sean Branigan
Produced by Adrienne Greenhalgh

Best First Irish Short Film
Danger High Voltage
Directed by Luke McManus
Produced by Morgan Baker

Best Irish Short Documentary
The Year I Got Younger
Directed by Genevieve Bailey
Produced by Aindrias de Staic, Genevieve Bailey, Henrik Nordstrom

Best Irish Short Animation
Granny O Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
Directed by Nicky Phelan
Produced by Darragh O'Connell

Best First Irish Short Animation
Monolith
Directed by Matt Horan
Produced by IADT

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