Well I have to say I am totally delighted to have won the Best Actress category for “Covies” at the Underground Cinema Awards this year. It was a fantastic night and superbly put together down to the fine details by Dave and all the Underground team. This year marks the first Underground Awards and with Labour party leader Eamonn Gilmore speaking on the night, I felt he hit the nail on the head saying that this is the first of many years of success for Underground and what a privilege to have been part of the first one.
The Underground team have already begun the process to kick off next years monthly screenings, and the films which were presented throughout this past year will continue to tour the UK and Ireland meaning an even wider audience will gain access to view these amazing independent short films.
In the run up to the Awards night David Byrne from Underground and I did a radio interview with Richie Beirne for “Arena” RTE’s flagship Culture/entertainment/ Arts programme. You can listen to the radio interview here:
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I haven’t any of the official photos from the night yet so here is just a snapshot of me on the night!!
Once again I’m a little slow off the mark to write on this but I’m delighted to have received a “Best Actress” nomination for Covies from Underground Cinema, which I’ve previously written about, and would like to update here on the upcoming events.
As I’ve mentioned before Underground Cinema is a monthly screening of short films held in Dun Laoghaire. Over the past year Underground has screened 100 Short Irish Films, 16 Documentaries, 11 Music Videos and 5 Animated Films. Now that the screening year has come to a close Underground is facing into the exciting time of the Underground Film Festival and Awards Night.
Nominations Night took place at the beginning of August and nominations were announced for categories primarily for work on independent short Irish films. Included in the nominations night was the list of the 30 short films which have been selected for screening at the Underground Film Festival which will take place in the Screen Cinema, D’Olier Street on September 16th & 17th at 7.30pm nightly. Following the Film Festival, on the 18th September, the Awards night will be held in the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel in Killiney.
I have to say I was thrilled to hear I’d received the nomination and I’m really looking forward to attending the awards night in September. Another great piece of news is that my first project “Waiting Room” on which I co-directed, wrote and acted in has been selected to play along with Covies at the Underground Film Festival on the Friday night… brilliant!!
Well, there you have it! Head along to The Screen cinema on 16th and 17th September for a unique cinema experience and support the independent film makers of Ireland.
Blogged by Sarah on April 14th, 2010 in Uncategorized
For a while now I’ve been meaning to write about a newish venture and great new asset to the Independent Filmmakers of Ireland, Underground Cinema, developed and co-ordinated by Dave Byrne. Dave has successfully run Bluemoon Theatre Company for many years and I came to know him when I had the pleasure of working on one of their productions in 2008.
Last year however, Dave changed course from the theatre company with the introduction of his new project, a monthly screening night in the Kingston Hotel Dun Laoghaire for Irish Short films, Underground Cinema. The idea behind Underground is to air the many wonderful independent Irish Shorts shot throughout the year that very often don’t get the screening time they deserve. Dave has opened the doors to anything which is sent to him, stating that any genre or convention is welcome. Over the months the screenings have also stretched to cover music videos and the occasional feature film. Another great aspect of Underground Cinema is that these monthly screenings will culminate into a nominations night in the Kingston Hotel, the Underground Film Festival in the IMC Dun Laoghaire and the Underground Cinema Awards (Black Tie Event) in Fitzpatricks Castle Hotel Killiney in September.
The whole project is ambitious to say the least and has so far had a well deserved great reaction, but this project has legs and is expanding all the time with Daves further introductions:
Underground TV (a live online showing of films with the director available for live chat afterwards)
Underground Cinema Roadshow (screenings held to a wider audience in venues throughout Ireland and the UK)
Underground Cinema Movie Marquee (a film tent appearing at various summer festivals)
Underground Cinema Movie Workshops (delivering valuable workshops in many aspects of film making)
I’m sure I’ll be writing more over the coming months about the exciting development of Underground Cinema but of course there’s much more to read about on the official Underground Cinema website and you can keep updated with the events by following on Facebook and Twitter.