Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney’s Lakelands was among the big winners at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh which closed on Sunday evening (July 10).
Set among a community in the Irish midlands where Gaelic football is revered Lakelands centres on a sportsman struggling with the aftermath of a head injury. It won best Irish film and the Bingham Ray New Talent award. The latter was given jointly to Lakelands’ two lead actors, Éanna Hardwicke and Danielle Galligan.
The Fleadh awarded best Irish first feature to Michael Kinirons’ The Sparrow, about a troubled teen living in West Cork who is involved in a tragic accident and must deal with the consequences of a secret he keeps.
Kathryn Ferguson’s portrait of iconic Irish musician Sinead O’Connor was awarded best Irish documentary in what was a busy year for documentary programming, with 21 new Irish documentaries screened.
UK director Malachi Smyth’s musical heist The Score and Lila Schmitz’s US feature The Job Of Songs, featuring Irish musicians in Co Clare, were awarded best international film and best international documentary respectively.
Peripheral Visions - the Flesh’s European cinema competition for first and second features in cooperation with Europa Film Festivals - was presented to Niklas Lindgren’s Finnish comedy’s Bad Women. The film is set around a disastrous series of events on the eve of an important wedding.
Declan Recks’ Irish-language drama Tarrac, about the competitive world of Naomhóg rowing, received best cinematography in an Irish film for Patrick Jordan, while David Greenwald’s Afghan Dreamers, about an all-girls robotics team of young Afghan women, was awarded best human rights film.
Irish showcase
Featuring 18 world premieres and 18 debut features, this year’s programme further solidified Ireland’s strength in depth of both emerging and established storytellers. The Fleadh hosted a total of 32 Irish features as well as world cinema from 30 different countries. It opend with Emer Reynolds’ Joyride.
“Nothing beats the theatrical experience and I think the past six days really proved that,” said the Fleadh’s director of programming, William Fitzgerald. “There was a really great sustained buzz since the opening night that carried all the way through until closing night.”
Among the most popular guest Q&As were a conversation with Derry Girls creator Lisa McKee following a screening of the series finale.
Luxembourgish actor Vicky Krieps was also in town with her film Hold Me Tight, directed by Mathieu Almaric.
“She put all of herself into that performance and she had some really profound, philosophical things to say about the film and about her role as an actress,” said Fitzgerald of the Q&A in which Krieps’ participated. “She’s a really keen observer of the human condition and she was really warm to the audience.”
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