Celtic Film and TV Festival announces 2006 shortlist

Following extensive jury deliberations, the awards shortlist for the 27th Annual Celtic Film and Television Festival - the annual international broadcasting event celebrating the cultures and languages of the Celtic countries and regions - was announced today.
Ireland leads the nominations list this year with 30 nominations, closely followed by Scottish and Welsh productions with 27 and 26 nominations respectively. Nominations overall are up on the previous year, suggesting an increasingly healthy broadcast production environment in all of the Celtic regions. The 2006 award winners will be announced at the Festival in Falmouth, Cornwall on March 29-31 2006.
This year’s nominees include hit BBC series Dr Who (BBC Wales), the much lauded feature film Festival (Young Pirate Films - Scotland), the critically acclaimed series Tribe (BBC Wales) and the Bafta-nominated Welsh feature film A Way of Life (Tantrum Films), winner of the UK Film Talent award at last year’s London Film Festival. Other highlights include an acclaimed Breton animation called La Poeme de la Mer (Erwan Le Gal), Rick Stein’s The Teaching Challenge (Brook Lapping - Cornwall) and Iran: An Bealach In Airde, a new documentary by previous winners of the CF&TV Festival’s Spirit of the Festival Gold Torc, Crossing The Line Films, an Irish independent production company.
Frances Hendron, Chief Executive of the Celtic Film & TV Festival said, “With standards as high as ever, whittling down 400 entries to a shortlist has been no mean feat. The quality of the festival programme and the prestige of winning an award mean The Celtic Film & Television Festival continues to be recognised by the international TV community as an important and exciting date in the creative awards calendar.”
(GB)