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Paul Mescal and Sharon Horgan were among the winners at the Irish Film and Television Awards.

Despite Colin Farrell losing out the best actor award to Mescal, “The Banshees of Inisherin” beat out competitors to win best film. In the international category “All Quiet on the Western Front” took home the top award on Sunday night.

Read on for the full list of winners.

Film Categories

Best Film

“Aisha”

“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Winner

“God’s Creatures”

“Lakelands”

“Róise & Frank”

“The Wonder”

Director – Film

“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner

“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh

“It Is In Us All” – Antonia Campbell Hughes

“Joyride” – Emer Reynolds

“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon

“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty & Peter Murphy

Script – Film

“Aisha” – Frank Berry – Winner

“The Banshees of Inisherin” – Martin McDonagh

“God’s Creatures” – Shane Crowley

“Joyride” – Ailbhe Keogan

“Let the Wrong One In” – Conor McMahon

“Róise & Frank” – Rachael Moriarty,...

Martin McDonagh’s nine-fold Oscar nominee The Banshees of Inisherin, snubbed at this year’s Academy Awards, was a big winner at the 2023 Irish Film and TV Awards (IFTAs), winning three trophies, including for best film, best supporting actor for Brendan Gleeson and best supporting actress for Kerry Condon.

Aftersun star Paul Mescal, another snubbed 2023 Oscar nominee, also won over the home crowd, winning his first IFTA award as best actor for his turn in Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed debut.

Austin Butler’s turn as Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic, another Oscar-nominated performance that failed to win over the U.S. Academy, wowed IFTA voters, who gave the young American the award for the best international actor. Similarily, Cate Blanchett’s Oscar-nominated best actress turn in Tár was IFTA’s pick for its best international actress honor.

But IFTA voters agreed with the American Academy on Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front,...

Paul Mescal won best actor for Oscar-nominated performance in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun.

Aisha and The Banshees Of Inisherin were among the big winners at this year’s Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs) , which marked its 20th anniversary with a ceremony in Dublin on Sunday.

Martin McDonagh’s multiple Oscar-nominated The Banshees Of Inisherin shot on location in the west of Ireland and took awards for best film, while Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon won IFTAs for supporting actor and actress.

Frank Berry’s direct provision drama Aisha also scored several major awards in the ceremony at Dublin Royal Convention Centre.

Apple’s comedy series Bad Sisters and Martin McDonagh’s latest feature, The Banshees of Inisherin, took the top honors at this year’s Irish Film & TV Awards (IFTAs). Scroll down for the complete list of winners.

Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters was the biggest winner on the eve, taking four gongs, including Best Drama plus Best Director Drama for Dearbhla Walsh and Actress in a Supporting Role – Drama for Ann Marie Duff. Banshees clocked three wins: the coveted Best Film award alongside Actor in a Supporting Role – Film was awarded to Brendan Gleeson.

Elsewhere, Paul Mescal clocked his first IFTAs win in the Best Actor category for his leading performance in Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed debut Aftersun and filmmaker Frank Berry won two awards on the night, Best Director and Best Script Award for his refugee drama Aisha, starring Letitia Wright.

Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front...

Ireland’s coast serves as a catalyst for a man’s furious unraveling in writer-director Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ strikingly atmospheric first feature. “It Is in Us All,” , is anchored by the force-of-nature turn from its superlative star Cosmo Jarvis. Intoxicating to the senses, this film boasts an indomitable vitality, a zest for life so uncontainable it brims with mortal danger.

British-raised Hamish (Jarvis), a put-together man in his 30s, returns to the seaside Irish hometown of his late mother to see the house he inherited from his aunt before selling it. But on his drive there, a fateful car crash sends him to the hospital without major bodily injuries, but a torturous moral wound: In the collision, a teenaged boy in the other car died, while the alleged passenger, 17-year-old Evan (Rhys Mannion), survived.

What he expected to get resolved in a quick trip turns into a cataclysm of the soul...

The last few years have seen an uptick in the number of genre films directed by women, and it’s been interesting to see the impact of that on such a traditionally male-dominated field. Directed by Irish-born actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes, It Is In Us All, which had its world premiere in the Narrative Feature lineup at SXSW, is one of the strangest yet: a gore-free body horror that manages to be completely unnerving without conforming to any of the usual expectations that come with the territory. A very rough comparison would be David Cronenberg’s 1996 psychodrama Crash, but the sense of dread here is much less tangible, even though car accidents feature prominently.

The lead is Hamish Considine (Cosmo Jarvis), a worldly London creative who arrives in Donegal to settle his late aunt’s estate, having inherited her home.

Most parents have the odd stressful moment when they jokingly wonder if they’re raising a devil’s spawn. Unfortunately for Andi Matichak, that notion seems neither humorous nor hyperbolic in “Son,” wherein the star of David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” reboot has a more “Rosemary’s Baby”-ish problem on her hands.

This latest, Heartland-set feature from Irish writer-director Ivan Kavanagh (“Never Grow Old”) echoes his prior horror exercise, 2014’s “The Canal,” in that it similarly means to keep us uncertain whether our protagonist is bedeviled by supernatural peril or delusional psychosis. But that line isn’t trod quite so nimbly this time, and the film suffers somewhat from striking an oddly earnest tone (despite some gory bits) without necessarily being very convincing, when it might better have gone for straight nerve-jangling suspense. It’s an intriguing, watchable but mixed bag that Rlje Films is releasing March 5 to available theaters,...

“I’m told I was a violent child,” Douglas Armstrong, better known as “Arm,” says in the opening voiceover of “The Shadow of Violence.” Played by Cosmo Jarvis, he’s a visibly haunted former boxer with a tragic backstory that’s led him to a new life of crime. “Don’t go thinking all violence is the way of hateful men. Sometimes it’s just the way a fellow makes sense of this world,” he says. But inside Arm there’s an ooey-gooey center of sweetness that is slowly unraveled over the course of this lean, mean, and brutal Irish crime fable from director Nick Rowland, a first-time feature filmmaker making his elegant debut after a career in TV and short films.

. Not to mention a powerful vehicle for its two leads, Jarvis and Barry Keoghan.

“The Shadow of Violence” was previously titled “Calm with Horses,” in reference to Arm’s equine-whispering abilities,...

Best film nominees separated into 2019 and 2020 categories.

Tom Sullivan’s Great Famine drama Arracht and Paddy Breathnach’s homelessness story Rosie lead the film nominations at the 2020 Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards.

Arracht picked up 11 nominations from 15 feature film categories; with Rosie scoring nine.

Full IFTA 2020 nominations below

IFTA is finalising plans for a virtual 2020 awards ceremony in September; there will be no physical IFTA awards ceremony until April 2021. This year’s best film nominees have been split into two categories: five titles are nominated for best film 2019 and a further five have been nominated for best film...

There is a pathetic beauty to Calm With Horses which breaks and warms your heart in equal measure. The characters in Nick Rowland’s West of Ireland set film speak wistfully of Cork as if it is a far off land and for most of them – shackled tight to their ugly lives – it is as far out of reach as the escape to Mexico a bumbling minion proposes when things start to go awry.

Douglas ‘Arm’ Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) is a man of few words. His life as a promising young boxer derailed after a fight went horribly wrong and sent him careening into the deadly embrace of The Devers. This shambolic crime family rule over the cracked pavements, terraces and cattle sheds of the locale with nicotine-stained fists and perplexing priorities.

Arm was recruited into the fold by Devers nephew Dympna (Barry Keoghan), a smalltown rat boy whose family...

In Stacie Passon’s dynamic directorial debut “Concussion”, a housewife breaks free of her suburban bubble by taking on sex work in the city. With her sophomore feature “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” adapted by Mark Kruger from the 1962 novel by Shirley Jackson, Passon offers a female protagonist who’s the antithesis of her previous one: Merricat Blackwood (Taissa Farmiga) can’t ensconce herself enough from the world outside.

(The heroine of “Concussion” spends most of the film renovating a Manhattan apartment, while Merricat builds her entire world within the walls of the family manse, meaning that someday, someone is going to craft a thesis with a title like “Inquire Within: Real Estate in the Films of Stacie Passon.”)

While this period adaptation sees the filmmaker operating in a more traditional, classical mode, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” allows Passon to work with a larger, more...

Two of my favorite actors, and especially actors who aren’t given enough juicy roles in the industry, happen to be John Cusack and Emile Hirsch. Both are talented actors who have had brushes with Oscar but never quite gotten to that Academy Award nomination. The former has been somewhat stuck in a rut of generic action outings of late, while the latter just isn’t working enough. To see them together in something always seemed like a treat in the making. Well, this week brings them face to face in a quality little Western called Never Grow Old. The film is a nice little effort, buoyed by strong work from the both of them. This is a Western, in all of its simple charm. Taking place in the peaceful frontier town of Garlow, home to Undertaker Patrick Tate (Emile Hirsch) and his family, we’ll see it turn into...

If the recent failure of films such as “The Little Stranger” and “Marrowbone” has taught us anything, it’s that audiences don’t seem as thrilled with good, bone-chilling Gothic mysteries as they once were. Today, when it comes to spine-tinglers, moviegoers seem to value jump scares and gore over psychological brooding. That hasn’t stopped filmmakers who, every few decades, revive the works of novelist Shirley Jackson. Her stories speak to a darker side of humanity. Stacie Passon, director of “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” sharply channels the author’s atmosphere of dread, paranoia, and isolation, making the past feel prescient.

Socially awkward 18-year-old Mary Katherine Blackwood (Taissa Farmiga), nicknamed “Merricat” by her family, lives with her agoraphobic sister Constance (Alexandra Daddario) and anguished, barely lucid Uncle Julian (Crispin Glover) on the sprawling grounds of Blackwood Manor. The gorgeous Gothic mansion sits high above a small New England town,...

Michael Fassbender exec producing Irish-set drama with Ifb backing.

Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth), Barry Keoghan (The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) and Niamh Algar (The Drummer And The Keeper) will lead the cast of director Nick Rowland’s feature debut Calm With Horses for Michael Fassbender’s Dmc Films.

Altitude Film Sales has boarded international rights and, through its distribution label, will partner with Element Pictures Distribution for the film’s release in the UK and Ireland.

Calm With Horses is based on a novella from the collection of award-winning short stories Young Skins by Irish writer Colin Barrett. Joe Murtagh has adapted the screenplay,...

Stars: Sam Keely, Ellen Page, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Paula Malcomson, Stuart Graham, Oscar Nolan, David Herlihy, Peter Campion, Hilda Fay, Lesley Conroy, Natalia Kosfrzewa, Barry McGovern | Written and Directed by David Freyne

The brainchild of Irish writer-director David Freyne, this powerful and provocative post-zombie flick offers a fresh take on the genre, making it a must-see for genre fans.

Based on Freyne’s related 2014 short The First Wave, The Cured opens in Dublin, in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, where a scientist (Paula Malcomson) has found an antidote that has cured 75% of the infected. The remaining 25% have been locked away while the scientist refines the formula, while the former infectees – known as the cured – have attempted to return to their former lives, only to be met with anger and suspicion.

Sam Keely plays Senan, one of the cured, who’s let out of a government containment facility and goes to...

IndieWire reached out to the cinematographers whose films are headlining the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to find out which cameras they used and, more importantly, why they were the right tools to create their projects.

Read More:Cannes 2017: Here Are the Cameras Used To Shoot 29 of This Year’s Films “55 Steps”

Dir: Bille August, Dp: Filip Zumbrunn

Camera: Arri Alexa Mini and Amira

Lens: Cooke Panchros S2/3

Zumbrunn: “Because of the beautiful skin tones, the good latitude of the Arri-log and the reliability of the body — especially when shooting the entire movie handheld — it was clear, that we wanted to shoot on the Arri Alexa Mini. As a B-Camera body we were using an Arri Amira. We chose the vintage Cooke Panchros S2/3 together with the Tiffen Pearlescent filters to give the movie a warm, filmic and not too clean look to transport the feeling of the early eighties. And...

More details are coming in for Lorcan Finnegan's Without Name. Releasing today, the film's official trailer and film poster are hosted here. Described as a "delirious time lost in the woods (Kurland, Bloody Disgusting)," the film's latest promotional material bends the mind. In the story, several surveyors are working in a local, Irish wood. But, something supernatural this way creeps. The trailer for Without Name is equally strange and distorted. A preview of the film's Video-on-demand launch is hosted here. In the trailer, Eric (Alan McKenna) narrates the clip. He talks of a place, that he cannot describe. He calls it a "door" and a "frequency," but these words do not describe this place accurately. Then, events take a trip into madness. This award winning film will show on most Video-on-demand platforms, today. Without Name has already won “Best Feature,” “Best Director (Lorcan Finnegan),” “Best Editor (Tony Cranstoun)” and...

Lorcan Finnegan’s debut suffers from some predictable plotting, but the eye-popping flair of its spectral sylvan visions is quite something to behold

So trippy it makes Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England look like an afternoon at the tax office, Dublin director Lorcan Finnegan’s debut sprig of sylvan-psych makes up for its occasional heavy tread with outstanding photography. Alan McKenna is a middle-aged surveyor with a curdling home life, sent out to chart ancient woodlands in preparation for development. But his surveyor’s pendulum is acting up, he witnesses strange figures in the morning mists, and, when his assistant-cum-lover (Niamh Algar) arrives, it’s clear his spiritual compass is erring, too.

A clear subscriber to the school of the atmospheric slow build over the jump-shock, it’s a shame Finnegan is too eager to will-o-the-wisp us down predictable paths – as he does with some unsubtle plotting, and...

Tricia Lee's Blood Hunters kicks off today's Horror Highlights with news that the film will have three screenings this month in North America, just in time for the most glorious of holidays, Halloween! Also: a recap / photos for Trash Fire's Screamfest screening in Los Angeles, a trailer / poster for The Terrible Two, and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival's list of awards.

Blood Hunters North American October Premiere: Press Release: "The trees are changing color and the weather is starting to cool, but Halloween is right around the corner. And Blood Hunters is having its North American premiere in the month of October. With three screenings scheduled this month, the film is fresh off a successful and well-received world premiere at Horror Channel Frightfest in London.

Directed by Tricia Lee and starring Lara Gilchrist, Benjamin Arthur, Torri Higginson, Julian Richings, Mark Taylor, and Peter Blankenstein, the film debuted in...

Dublin’s damped and gloomy days underscore the heartfelt human drama in Irish filmmaker Gerard Barrett's affecting feature “Glassland.” Centered on a mother and a son, the film doesn’t resort to excessive embellishments to capture the agony of addiction and the strength of unshakable love. Its melancholic beauty is elicited from the decisively enthralling cinematography and two utterly intense performances. The characters, like the film itself, offer sincere tenderness amidst the irrational affliction they must face together.

Working as cab driver to support his small imperfect family, John (Jack Reynor) leads a life with few hopes for his own future. As he assures on a recurrent voice over phrase, he’s exhausted and frustrated with his predetermined existence. The monumental task of taking care of Jean (Toni Collette), his alcoholic mother, is not limited to the financial aspect. She routinely drinks herself to the point of shameless and violent incoherence. These episodes inevitably take a toll on John who’s unable to find a way to combat her corrosive illness.

Tireless John carries this enormous burden in addition to his already numerous responsibilities, such as visiting his younger brother Kit (Harry Nagle), who was born with Down syndrome and lives in a government facility given that the situation at home is far less than ideal. Revealing her tremendous selfishness, Jean refuses to visit her youngest, which leaves John to fill in the emotional void as best as he can. His kind efforts are as simple as a spontaneous car ride or a birthday card, but they are constant and brimming with warmth.

Though not explicitly discussed, John’s actions let us know that some of the work he is involved with is not exactly law-abiding. Caught up in this daily chaos, the young man’s only relief is his time with childish, but loyal, best friend Shane (played by a humorous and endearing Will Poulter), a video game-loving momma’s boy. Their lives couldn’t be more disparate as Shane is planning to escape the passiveness of this town by traveling abroad. Quietly disguising his sadness with lighthearted banter, John internally understands he can’t just pack up and leave.

Observing his characters’ challenging reality as if hiding behind door frames, Barret and his cinematographer Piers McGrail construct a visually poetic maze out of this family’s mistrust and disappointment. The glass partitions can’t contain their explosive arguments always adorned with powerful moments of bare truth. Through these stylistic choices we are invited to become silent witnesses with the camera. Each door becomes a window into the bottled up anger and suffering that resides in their home. Sometimes we are allowed to lean in closer to look at Jean’s tormented face or John’s inspiring determination. More often, we must wait outside the room for the next outburst to occur. It’s visual storytelling at its best.

Showcasing a precise ability for nuanced tone, Barrett assertively chooses to sprinkle a handful of subtly comedic moments, which offer glimpses of joy as palpable and delicate as the most painful sequences in the film. John is an unsung hero who never wallows in the daunting nature of his circumstances, but rather strives to find solutions. Capturing the very essence of this troubled man, Reynor gives a moving performance that irradiates compassion and generosity towards all those he encounters. Every smile, scream, and piercingly disapproving look towards Jean’s behavior carries a touching sense of duty. His character strongly refuses to succumb to despair and doing the correct thing is always above everything else. This is a career-making performance that while subdued, stands out because of its naturalistic humanity.

But Reynor is not alone when it comes to marvelous on-camera work here. In what becomes a standout scene, Toni Collette delivers a devastating monologue that is at once genuinely devastating and harrowing. She dishes out her thoughts on motherhood, loneliness, and her dependence on the negatively soothing friend that is alcohol. Collette is marvelously vulnerable and occasionally even terrifying. It’s at once a physically and psychologically haunting performance that complements Reynor’s gentle strength. She is consumed by her character in a powerful manner.

Their road to recovery it scattered with tangible worldly obstacles and the necessity to reconnect spiritually so that she can heal and he can start his own life. “Glassland” is about this crossroads in their lives, one in which the dark passages must be overpowered by John’s devotion to help Jean. There is nothing he won’t do to help her, but the uncertainty of their future is reaching unbearable heights. Death lurks in every corner waiting for the final, and brutal blow to come. John’s mission is to stop his mother from taking it, to save her from herself.

For all its wonderfully dim color palette, for its unexpected charm, its carefully design aesthetics without being overpowering, its heart-wrenching sensibility, and its compelling cast, Barrett’s “Glassland” is as much a directorial triumph as it is a fantastic challenge for its actors. The film avoids overdramatic and trite tropes, and instead focuses on its successfully minimalist scope. I loved this film for the grave themes explored through a lens coated with sympathy, and for the brave people it uses to tell its story. John is a quotidian warrior who is untainted by his problematic situation, although his face portrays a stark demeanor, there’s a smiling face reflected on the glass in front of him. That internal desire to be happy cannot be shattered.

"Glassland" opens today in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall and in NYC at Cinema Village. The film is also available on VOD.

Note: Review originally published during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival where "Glassland" premiered...

While the horror genre seems to have been given a shot in the arm as of late, there are still those who wish for a return to the eighties, where horror movies were more about atmosphere, and more importantly, gore. Well, fear not horror fans, for that’s exactly what we get from Irish director Brian O’Malley’s debut feature, Scottish/Irish co-production Let Us Prey. Set in a strangely abandoned Scottish coastal town, where the maybe only inhabitants are holed up in the police station, rookie cop Rachel's (Pollyanna McIntosh) first night gets off to a strange start with the arrival of Liam Cunningham’s enigmatic stranger. Known only as Six, named for the cell he is held in, he begins to get into the heads of those around him, revealing the dark secrets of not only his fellow prisoners, but the local police force as well. Let Us Prey...

We here at Sound On Sight believe horror transcends explicit gore, jump scares or supernatural content, which is why you’ll soon notice our list ranges from independent art films to psychological thrillers to parodies, satire and more. Surprisingly, vampires lead the pack this year, along with found footage flicks, but there are a few comedies, one remake and even some strange love stories as well.

Every other year, I’ve published the list of best horror films based solely on my picks, but this year, Sound On Sight editor Justine Smith and Sos contributor Felix Vasquez Jr. also participated. Since we couldn’t agree with what is the best horror film of 2014, we decided to publish the list in alphabetical order. That said, here are our individual picks:

Ricky D- Under the Skin

Justine Smith – Cybernatural

Felix Vasquez Jr. - The Babadook

****

This list is in alphabetical order

Animal...

Atmosphere trumps everything else in The Canal, a stylish Irish horror film that feels like a David Fincher–helmed Edgar Allan Poe homage. Piers McGrail's nuanced, moody cinematography brings out the best in writer-director Ivan Kavanagh's over-mannered but effectively creepy ghost story. You may not care who lives or dies by film's end, but you will want to get lost in beautifully shot images of waving reeds and dark-haired phantoms. Case in point: It's hard to be moved by the sudden death of Alice (Hannah Hoekstra), wife of film archivist David (Rupert Evans). Alice reveals almost nothing about herself before she's dispatched within the film's first 30 minutes, right after David watches century-old footage of a murder that occurred in his family's new home. ...

A John Hurt-narrated test trailer for potential Irish sci-fi feature film 'Ayame' is currently in post production at Dublin-based Yard Creative Post Production house. Developed by Dublin's Jang Productions and Cashmere Media, 'Ayame', Lawrence Fee of Yard is overseeing the post work, with Karl Fee the VFX supervisor, Phil Cullen the matte painter and Ronan Coyle looking after additional video effects. Conor Maloney is directing. Tony Callaly of Cashmere and Jason Foran of Jang Productions in Dublin produced the trailer, which was shot in Ardmore Studio's c-stage over three days with Piers McGrail the director of photography.

The winners of the Light In Motion awards for Best Irish short, best international short, best animation and best documentary were announced at the closing of the 24th Foyle Film Festival last night in Derry. 'Downpour' was awarded the award for Best Irish Short. Starring Muireann Bird (Eamon) and Cian Barry (Doctors, Shameless), the short is an ode to Ireland and to Irish rain. The short was directed by Claire Dix (Free Chips Forever!) produced by Nodlag Houlihan of Zucca Films and filmed by Piers McGrail (Kelly & Victor).