Good Vibrations wins Best Irish Feature Award at Galway Film Fleadh
Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s Terri Hooley biopic Good Vibrations picked up the Best Irish Feature Award at the closing ceremony of the 24th Galway Film Fleadh last night (Sunday 15th July).
The film, which recently opened the Karlovy Vary and Belfast Film Festivals, stars Richard Dormer in the title role (Five Minutes of Heaven), Jodie Whittaker (One Day), Liam Cunningham (Hunger), Dylan Moran (A Cock and Bull Story) and Adrian Dunbar (The Crying Game).
The Good Vibrations key creative team hail from Northern Ireland including husband and wife directing team Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Cherrybomb). With a script by writers Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson, it is produced by Andrew Eaton (The Trip) and Chris Martin (Peacefire). David Holmes (Ocean's Eleven) is also on the producing team and provides the score. Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, Jonny Quinn and Nathan Connelly are executive producers.
Terri Hooley (Dormer) is a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast. When the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city; his friends take sides and take up arms, or leave the country. But Terri decides to open a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and call it Good Vibrations. It’s a gesture of defiance - but it seems no-one cares. The shop begins to attract a motley band of mouthy kids with a love of loud music and nowhere else to go: Belfast punks. When Terri hears the punk bands play, he hears the lost spirit of his city. Terri has found a mission. He needs to get this music and this energy heard in an outside world that’s written off Belfast. With these bands, he has a shot at resurrecting the city he loves, through the most powerful force he knows: music. Terri and his young punk protégés struggle against the myriad dark forces of the Troubles, and Terri’s own particular urge toward self-destruction, in a bid to create an alternative Ulster, to bring Belfast back to life.
Good Vibrations is financed through the Northern Ireland Screen Fund supported by Invest NI and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Black North's Kris Kelly and Evelyn McGrath won the The International Federation of Film Societies Don Quijote Prize for Short Animation with Here to Fall. Black North also did all the VFX work on Good Vibrations.
Best First Irish Feature went jointly to Ciaran Foy’s Citadel and Alan Brennan’s Earthbound while Best International Feature went to Srdjan Dragojevic’s The Parade.
Best International First Feature was awarded to Toni Bestard for Perfect Stranger, Natural Grace picked up the Best Irish Feature Documentary and Four Horsemen took the international equivalent.
Hannah Patterson’s Resistance scooped the festival’s pitching award and Pilgrim Hill director-producer Gerard Barrett won The Bingham Ray New Talent Award, given in association with Magnolia Pictures. Annabelle Ray made the presentation.
Isabelle Huppert and Frank Stapleton picked up Galway Hooker Awards.
Give Up Tomorrow won The Huston School of Film and Digital Media’s Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy Award while successful shorts Fear of Flying and The Girl with the Mechanical Maiden will now be eligible to enter the running for the short film Oscar.
For more information on Galway Film Fleadh please click here.