It’s a wrap for the 2021 edition of the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, one of Ireland’s most prestigious film events. This year, the festival was held online from 3-14 March. Yesterday, the gathering was brought to a close with a screening of Rachel Carey’s black comedy Deadly Cuts.

This year’s edition saw the triumph of Christos Nikou’s Apples [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christos Nikou
scheda film], crowned Best Film, and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s To the Moon [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tadhg O'Sullivan
scheda film], which pocketed the Award for Best Irish Feature. Nikou’s film, premiered in the Orizzonti strand of the Venice Film Festival last year, is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows the middle-aged Aris (played by Aris Servetalis), who finds himself enrolled in a recovery programme designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. To the Moon, presented in the Giornate degli Autori section of Venice, is a beautiful and poetic cinematic ode to the moon, made primarily from international cinematic archives in combination with literary fragments and original moonlit cinematography filmed across five continents.

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As for the performance categories, the Best Actress Award was bestowed upon British thesp Joanna Scanlan for her turn in Aleem Khan’s UK production After Love [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aleem Khan
scheda film], while Croatia’s Goran Bogdan was crowned Best Actor thanks to his lead performance in Srdan Golubovic’s Father [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Srdan Golubović
scheda film] (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia).

Lili Horvát was deemed to be Best Director for her Hungarian production Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lili Horvat
intervista: Natasa Stork
scheda film]; meanwhile, in the documentary category, it was Radu Ciorniciuc’s Acasa, My Home [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Radu Ciorniciuc
scheda film] (Romania/Finland/Germany) that came out on top, with a Special Mention going to The Reason I Jump [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Jerry Rothwell (UK/USA).

Here is the full list of award winners:

Best Film
Apples [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christos Nikou
scheda film] – Christos Nikou (Greece/Poland/Slovenia)

Best Actress
Joanna Scanlan – After Love [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aleem Khan
scheda film] (UK)

Best Actor
Goran Bogdan – Father [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Srdan Golubović
scheda film] (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia)

Best Screenplay
Lee Issac Chung – Minari (USA)

Best Director
Lili Horvát – Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lili Horvat
intervista: Natasa Stork
scheda film] (Hungary)

Best Documentary
Acasa, My Home [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Radu Ciorniciuc
scheda film] – Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Finland/Germany)
Special Mention
The Reason I Jump [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Jerry Rothwell (UK/USA)

Best Irish Feature
To the Moon [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tadhg O'Sullivan
scheda film] – Tadhg O’Sullivan (Ireland)

Sue Bruce-Smith Award for Best Irish Short
Her Song – Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan (Ireland)
Special Mention
Kathleen Was Here – Eva Birthistle (Ireland)

Best International Short
Anita – Sushma Khadepaun (India/USA)
Special Mentions
Omé – Wassim Geagea (Lebanon)
I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face – Sameh Alaa (Egypt/France/Belgium/Qatar)

Aer Lingus Discovery Award
Burschi Wojnar (director of photography) – HUM (Ireland), Kathleen Was Here (Ireland)
Rachel Carey (director) - Deadly Cuts (Ireland)
Hazel Doupe (actor) - Kathleen Was Here
Saileóg O’Halloran (costume designer) - Kathleen Was Here

ICCL Human Rights Film Award
The Dissident – Bryan Fogel (USA)

Best Cinematography
Viktor Kosakovskiy and Egil Håskjold Larsen – Gunda [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Norway/USA)

George Byrne Maverick Award
Ivan Kavanagh – Son [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (Ireland/UK/USA)

Michael Dwyer Discovery Award
Zofia Stafiej – I Never Cry [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Piotr Domalewski
scheda film] (Poland/Ireland)

Jury Prizes
Dinner in America – Kyle Gallner (USA)
Lapsis – Noah Hutton (USA)
Jumbo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Zoé Wittock
scheda film] – Zoé Wittock (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)
The Dissident – Bryan Fogel