Film and TV awards to be split into two events.

The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) has announced that the annual IFTA Awards Ceremony has been split into two separate distinct smaller award ceremonies: a Film & Drama Awards and a Television Awards. 

Each event will honour top Irish creative talent.

Previously, the ceremony packed in more than 40 awards into one evening.The decision to split the prizes follows a consultation with industry and peer academies across Europe over the past 10 months.

The result is that the first IFTA Film & Drama Awards will take place on May 24 while the IFTA Television Awards will be held on Oct 17. Both events will be held in Dublin.

Following criticism of technical difficulties at last year’s ceremony, it has been announced the May event will not be screened live.

The IFTAs came under threat when, late last year, Irish public broadcaster RTÉ announced it would not be broadcasting the event again. Following this latest move, the ceremony will now be broadcast in Ireland by TV3.

Last year’s winners included John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary, which picked up best film.

IFTA has around 1,000 members made up of directors, producers, actors, writers and cinematographers, among others.

On average, 550 members register to vote each year and participate as jury alongside international jury and experts which in recent years has included Peter Jackson, Sir Alan Parker and Neil Marshall.

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