15/03/2021 - This year’s edition saw the triumph of Christos Nikou’s Apples, crowned Best Film, and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s To the Moon, which scooped Best Irish Feature

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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christos Nikou
film profile], crowned Best Film, and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s To the Moon [+see also:
trailer
interview: Tadhg O'Sullivan
film profile], 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.

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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aleem Khan
film profile], while Croatia’s Goran Bogdan was crowned Best Actor thanks to his lead performance in Srdan Golubovic’s Father [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Srdan Golubović
film profile] (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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile]; meanwhile, in the documentary category, it was Radu Ciorniciuc’s Acasa, My Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] (Romania/Finland/Germany) that came out on top, with a Special Mention going to The Reason I Jump [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jerry Rothwell (UK/USA).

Here is the full list of award winners:

Best Film
Apples [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christos Nikou
film profile] – Christos Nikou (Greece/Poland/Slovenia)

Best Actress
Joanna Scanlan – After Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aleem Khan
film profile] (UK)

Best Actor
Goran Bogdan – Father [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Srdan Golubović
film profile] (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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile] (Hungary)

Best Documentary
Acasa, My Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] – Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania/Finland/Germany)
Special Mention
The Reason I Jump [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Jerry Rothwell (UK/USA)

Best Irish Feature
To the Moon [+see also:
trailer
interview: Tadhg O'Sullivan
film profile] – 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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Norway/USA)

George Byrne Maverick Award
Ivan Kavanagh – Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Ireland/UK/USA)

Michael Dwyer Discovery Award
Zofia Stafiej – I Never Cry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Piotr Domalewski
film profile] (Poland/Ireland)

Jury Prizes
Dinner in America – Kyle Gallner (USA)
Lapsis – Noah Hutton (USA)
Jumbo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zoé Wittock
film profile] – Zoé Wittock (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)
The Dissident – Bryan Fogel