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Northside students meet film director

Wednesday, 06 May 2009

FIVE Northside students were given the chance to meet one of Ireland’s most successful film directors at an awards ceremony recently. Paddy Thunder, from Clontarf, Ed Collins from Glasnevin - both students at DCU; Sinead Lynch, from Artane, a student at NUI Maynooth; Steph McKeown, also from Artane, and Ruairí Sparks, from Drumcondra, both students at Trinity College, met acclaimed director Lenny Abrahamson at the DARE2BDRINKAWARE awards night at the Digital Hub. Now in its second year, DARE2BDRINKAWARE is a competition for third-level students sponsored by drinkaware.ie and organised by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA).  The aim of the competition is to highlight young people’s attitudes to alcohol and to promote responsible drinking.  The Northsiders who attended the awards ceremony were involved in films that had beaten off stiff competition from student filmmakers throughout Ireland to make the competition’s shortlist. In addition to meeting Lenny Abrahamson, the students also met RTÉ and Lyric FM presenter, John Kelly, as well as representatives from the Irish Film Institute, the Irish Film and Television Academy and MTV Ireland. Clontarf native Paddy Thunder was particularly pleased at the awards ceremony, when his team, Thundercat Productions, came second in the ‘Best Overall Film’ category for their film, ‘On The Rocks’, netting a prize of e600.  The film was also nominated in the ‘Best Production’ and ‘Best Original Concept’ categories, but was narrowly beaten for both awards by a film made by students of Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Lenny Abrahamson, whose films, ‘Garage’ and ‘Adam and Paul’, have won numerous awards, both in Ireland and at international level, was full of praise for all the short-listed films. “Competitions like this are integral to the future success of the Irish film industry,” said Mr Abrahamson.   “It’s very tough starting out as a novice filmmaker, so the experience and support gained through competitions such as DARE2BDRINKAWARE are invaluable.” Mr Abrahamson said he was really surprised “in a very good way” by the quality of all the films that made the shortlist. “It’s great to see emerging talent being rewarded in such a public way,” he added. Fionnuala Sheehan, chief executive of drinkaware.ie, said all of the films that made the shortlist were of a high standard. “All 10 films really succeeded in meeting the brief for the competition, which is to creatively explore young people’s attitudes to drinking,” stated Ms Sheehan.  “The experience, contacts and knowledge gained by the students who took part in this competition is really invaluable as they embark on their future careers.” The short-listed films will be screened at ‘Movies @ Dundrum’ as part of the Cinemagic Film Festival over the coming weeks, which will be a great experience for the filmmakers involved.  In addition, all of the films will air on City Channel over the next month. Also, they are available to view at www.dare2bdrinkaware.com