Irish short film Wave is the winner of the Grand Prix Irish Short at the Cork Film Festival 2017 Awards Ceremony. Benjamin Cleary and TJ O’Grady Peyton’s winning short will now go on the longlist for the 90th Academy Awards in the Live Action Short Film category.
Wave tells the story of Gasper Rubicon, who wakes from a coma speaking a fully formed but unrecognizable language. Cleary’s 2015 short, Stutterer won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short at the 88th Academy Awards.
The winner of the Grand Prix International Short Award, Mahdi Fleifel’s A Drowning Man (Denmark, Greece, UK), will also automatically qualify for the Academy Awards longlist.
Speaking at the Awards Ceremony, Cork Film Festival Producer and CEO Fiona Clark said: “Wave is a very deserving winner, and is a worthy inclusion on the Academy Awards’ longlist. The quality of shorts within this year’s Festival program has been exceptional, highlighting creativity and diversity in both subject matter and form.
The Shorts Jury, chaired by BAFTA nominated producer Farah Abushwesha, also selected Linda Curtin’s Everything Alive is in Movement, as the winner of the Best Cork Short, while Best Documentary Short went to Mia Mullarkey’s Mother & Baby, a documentary on survivors of the Tuam mother and baby home, which had its world premiere as part of the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board World Premiere Shorts program.
Other prize winners include Untitled directed by Michael Glawogger and Monika Will, which won the Gradam Na Féile Do Scannáin Faisnéise / Award for Cinematic Documentary. The film was created two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger by editor Monika Willi who took footage produced during Michael’s filming in the Balkans, Italy, and Northwest and West Africa.
The Gradam Spiorad Na Féile / Spirit of The Festival Award went to Rima Das’ Village Rockstars. It follows a young village girl in northeast India who wants to start her own rock band. An honorable mention went to Dafydd Flynn for his performance in Frank Berry’s Michael Inside.
The Cork Film Festival Nomination for the 2018 European Short Film Awards was Sebastian Lang’s Container.
The Audience Award was won by Frank Berry’s acclaimed Michael Inside, telling the story of an 18-year-old living in Dublin who is sentenced to three months in prison after he is caught hiding drugs for his friend’s older brother.
The Cork Film Festival Youth Jury Award went to Last Man in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad. The film allows the viewers to experience the rescue work of Syrian volunteers, The White Helmets.
Ms Clark added: “This year audiences had an opportunity to see 115 features, 34 documentaries and 116 shorts. For the majority of the films shown, this was the only chance to see them on the big screen in Cork.”
The Cork Film Festival will return for its 63rd edition in November 2018.