New Irish feature films scoop major prizes at the 15th Galway Film Fleadh

Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Board have announced that two new Irish films take top places in the Best First Feature awards at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh.
This year’s Audience Award for Best First Feature went to 'Intermission' with 'Headrush' being named second.
Intermission, directed by John Crowley and produced by Company of Wolves and Parallel Films, will be released nationwide by Buena Vista International (Ireland) on August 29.
Director John Crowley gave his reaction to the announcement: “It was a huge honour for us to have our premiere at Galway and we were given the warmest welcome anyone could have wished for. It is personally thrilling to win this award and hugely encouraging for the future of the film”.
The film which screened at the festival on Friday night was attended by cast members Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy and Kelly Macdonald among others.
Taking second prize was Headrush the feature debut of director Shimmy Marcus which was produced by Zanzibar Films. “We are over the moon as its voted by the audience who at the end of the day are the ones who count”, said Shimmy Marcus. Headrush is due for release in the Benelux countries in the Autumn with a release to follow in Ireland and the UK.
Rod Stoneman, CEO of the Film Board said, “Winning the top two places in the Best First Feature category is a powerful celebration of contemporary Irish talent. These two films perfectly demonstrate different scales of Irish film currently being made with Intermission, a bigger budget enterprise featuring Colin Farrell, to the lower budget digital feature Headrush”.
(GB)