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SAMSON AND DELILAH AND THE FADING LIGHT WIN CRITICS' AWARDS AT THE JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.
A panel representing The Dublin Film Critics Circle has named Samson and Delilah, a singular Australian drama, as the best film at the eighth Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The DFCC also identified The Fading Light, an extraordinary new film from Ivan Kavanagh, as the best Irish film and awarded the best performance prize to Patrick O’Donnell, for his perfectly pitched turn as a special needs adult in the same film.
Donald Clarke (The Irish Times), John Maguire (Sunday Business Post), Paul Lynch (Sunday Tribune), Dave O’Mahony (Access Cinema, The Event Guide), Paul Whitington (The Irish Independent) and DFCC president Tara Brady (Hot Press) joined their fellow DFCC members at the Irish Film Institute to announce the prizes on the evening of Saturday 27th February.
The panel also greatly enjoyed Dogtooth, Giorgos Lanthimos' discombobulating domestic satire, and awarded Lanthimos the prize for best director. The best documentary prize went to Ken Wardrop’s moving His and Hers, a wonderful study of the Irish Mammy.
Samson and Delilah, an Australian film that details the relationship between a teenage substance abuser and his Aboriginal girlfriend, is due to open in April. The Fading Light, a coruscating Bergmanesque tragedy, will be in Irish cinemas this month.
The DFCC were also pleased to announce Ms. Kate McCullough, the remarkable young cinematographer, as the first recipient of the Michael Dwyer Discovery award, named for the panel’s late friend and colleague.
The winners are as follows:
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE –
Patrick O’Donnell – The Fading Light
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE –
Tilda Swinton – I Am Love
BEST DOCUMENTARY
His and Hers – dir. Ken Wardrop
BEST IRISH FILM
The Fading Light – dir. Ivan Kavanagh
BEST DIRECTOR
Giorgos Lanthimos - Dogtooth
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – dir. Werner Herzog
BEST FILM
Samson and Delilah – dir. Warwick Thornton
MICHAEL DWYER DISCOVERY
Kate McCullough
