Stuart Sloan from Docs Ireland presents the Pull Focus Irish Documentary Award to Myrid Carten for her debut feature, A Want In Her.
A number of awards for the best in new documentary film-making have been awarded to a host of Irish and international film-makers, as the curtain draws to a close on the seventh annual Docs Ireland film festival.
Dedicated to platforming the best in new Irish documentary, this year’s annual Pull Focus Irish Documentary Competition went to Myrid Carten for her debut feature, A Want In Her. The jury were enthralled by the film and selected it “for its painfully honest portrait of mother-daughter relationship, in the shadow of addiction, and a creative new voice in documentary filmmaking”.
Established at Docs Ireland 2019, the Northern Ireland Screen Pitch is one of the festival’s flagstaff industry events and has ushered a wealth of non-fiction talent through the process of developing their feature documentaries. This year the jury selected The Loneliest Boy in the World by Medb Johnstone and Ann Ni Chiobhain.
The jury said, “as a story that looks beyond the headlines to reckon with history The Loneliest Boy in the World has the potential to weave a personal account with a political address - we hope this prize allows the filmmakers to dive deeper into their narrative research and establish a strong visual treatment of this historical story.”
This year the festival recognised acclaimed Irish cinematographer, stills photographer and documentary director Ross McDonnell, who tragically lost his life in 2023 with the Ross McDonnell Award for Best Cinematography in an Irish Feature. The inaugural award was given to Paddy Hayes for his Irish language film, David Keenan: Focla Ar Chanbhás / Words On Canvas.
The winner of the Short Competition was Ross McClean for No Mean City, with an Honorable Mention to Dennis Harvey for his film, The New Policy Regarding Asylum Seekers.
The LUMI Programmers jury winner was Ruairi Bradley, We Beg To Differ and an Honorable Mention was given to Meg Earls for It All comes Down.
Finally, the Maysles Award for Best in International Observational Documentary was awarded this year to Polish film, Silent Trees, directed by Agnieszka Zwiefka.
Director of Docs Ireland, Michele Devlin said: “Every year we are blown away by the standard of filmmaking at Docs Ireland. The reason we established this documentary-focused festival is to shine a light on Irish talent and to nurture it and support it. I would like to thank everyone who submitted films this year, those who participated on various jury panels and to all our event sponsors for making our seventh year such a success.”
Docs Ireland is supported by Northern Ireland Screen through the Department for Communities, Belfast City Council, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, BFI/Film Hub NI, and British Council and is proudly sponsored by TG4, BBC NI, Yellowmoon, FinePoint Films and Stellify Media.