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FESTIVALS Ireland

Brenda Fricker to get O’Hara award

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Oscar-winning Irish actress Brenda Fricker will receive the inaugural Maureen O’Hara Award at the 9th Kerry Film Festival (November 1-8). The award is named after former Hollywood actress Maureen O’Hara.

Fricker won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot. She also worked with Sheridan again in The Field, based on a play by Kerry’s own John B Keane, which was shot on location in Kerry.

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O’Hara, who now lives in County Cork, said, “It’s a privilege for me to have Brenda Fricker pick up the inaugural award. Brenda has displayed courage and determination throughout her career and her Oscar-winning role as Mrs. Brown in My Left Foot is one of the great highlights in Irish acting. I’m absolutely delighted that Brenda will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her career, in film and, most importantly, in her life.”

Fricker said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to accept the award. It’s lovely to be honoured and there’s a wee space on my mantle piece, right next to the Oscar, for this.” The Maureen O’Hara Award acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields.

The Awards ceremony will also screen of award winning short films judged by Kerry Film Festival’s panel of judges Liam Neeson, Kirsten Sheridan, John Carney and Oscar-winning short filmmakers Suzie Templeton and Vanessa Roth.

The closing night film will be Dambe: The Mali Project, a musical documentary that follows Irish musicians Liam O’ Maonlai and Paddy Keenan on a trip of musical discovery to the most remote music festival in the world, Festival au Desert in Mali.

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