The Hunchback in the Park
Animations inspired by Irish, Welsh and Scottish poets were among the winners of awards at the Celtic Media Festival, which was held in Inverness last week. An Aardman Animation short based on one of Dylan Thomas’s lesser known poems, produced for a season marking the centenary of his birth, won the Torc Award for best animation. The Hunchback in the Parkwas launched as an exclusive on BBC iPlayer on National Poetry Day. The BBC Cymru Wales production saw a reading by Michael Sheen accompanied by photography, computer graphics and stopframe animation set to a soundtrack composed by John Hardy Music and performed by BBC NOW.
The best app Torc was presented to Ireland’s Flickerpix and Touch Press for Seamus Heaney: Five Fables. This project saw Billy Connolly narrate animations inspited by the late Irish poet’s translations of poems by the 15th century Scottish poet Robert Henryson, whose work was sourced from Aesop. Written in Lowland Scots, Heaney decided to translate them into modern English, infused with the sounds of his Co Derry upbringing.
The 36thCeltic Media Festival took place over three days last week at Eden Court, Inverness, with 400 delegates arriving in the city today to experience the 3-day celebration of film, television, radio and digital media which promotes the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations and regions.
This year festival organisers received a record 500 entries to the prestigious Torc Awards, a 30% increase in entries on 2014.
RTÉ's Love/Hate (Ireland, RTÉ/Octagon Films Ltd) was named the winner of Drama Seriescategory, with jurors selecting it over Sherlock, Shetland and Corp + Anam. The drama explores Dublin’s multi-layered society, dealing with the worlds of under-privileged teenagers on its bleak estates in juxtaposition to the tail end of the Celtic Tiger and the lazy corruption of the middle classes.
Mairead Ni Nuadhain, head of external relations at RTÉ accepted the award. She said: “The Celtic Media Festival is very important to us because we support the festival very strongly. This drama series has been a fantastic series for us over the past five years – it’s received international acclaim, but it means an awful lot to be judged by our peers here at the Celtic Media Festival and to win this award.”
Seamus Heaney: Five Fables
Scottish Gaelic language station BBC Radio Nan Gàidheal was named Radio Station of the Year. The station delivers a comprehensive speech and music service for Gaelic speakers, covering a wide range of genres.
Marion MacKinnon, BBC Gaelic Language Service said: “This award is in recognition of our community, of the people who deliver BBC Radio Nan Gàidheal and the people who listen to BBC Radio Nan Gàidheal across the world. It’s recognition for a team that are really dedicated and talented, and to win an award is an opportunity for us to say thank you very much to our audience and our teams. For us as a Gaelic language service, it’s just so important that you’re measured on the same basis as every other station, and to be in competition with nine stations and to come out winning is a great privilege.”
The Kieran Hegarty Award for Innovation went to Welsh TV and production company Cwmni Da’s Prosiect iBeacons Oriel Plas-Glyn-y-Weddw (Wales/Cwmni Da). The groundbreaking project uses iBeacon technology to interpret art and history, and began with an app to accompany an exhibition by the artist Diane Metcalfe, with iBeacons triggering audio-visual content for each individual painting. Phil Stead, Cwmni Da, said: “This award is great recognition for one of the very few Welsh language digital agencies in the world. To win an award for innovation in a Welsh language environment is really special.”
The documentary Close to Evil (Ireland, RTÉ/Praxis Pictures) won the Factual Single award. It portrays how an RTÉ Radio interview marking Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2012 was the catalyst for a remarkable journey. Holocaust survivor Tomi discovers one of his former jailers - Hilde Lisiewicz is alive and living in Hamburg. Lisiewicz is a convicted War Criminal. She claims she is “a victim of victor's justice”. Tomi embarks on a quest to investigate the SS woman's claims of innocence.
Gerry Gregg, producer at Praxis Pictures, collected the award. He said:“We started to make the film in 2012, and finished in 2014. It was a two-year journey, and at the start of it we had very few champions, but we had a 78-year old Holocaust survivor – a man with the biggest heart in Europe. This was a history film, but it was also a film about one man’s generosity of spirit. For us, this award is the first major recognition we’ve had for our film.”
The Spirit of the Festival Award, which is bestowed upon a film or television programme wholly or substantially in a Celtic language that encapsulates the spirit of Celtic Media Festival each year, went to Páidí ó Sé – Rí an Pharóiste (Ireland, TG4/Magamedia) - a creative sports documentary telling the real story of footballing hero Páidí Ó Sé, eight time All-Ireland winner, rogue and the uncrowned king of his native parish of Ventry, Co. Kerry. In this candid portrait, Páidí’s life story is told by his neighbours, family and closest friends, just a year after his untimely death.
Laura Ni Cheallaigh, TG4, said: “To win this award is amazing. Páidí was a local hero in his community, and it was about his life, so it’s hugely important to us to be recognised within the Celtic countries. I suppose we understand each other, there’s a nugget that we all get amongst each other - I think they understand the fire and the passion that’s at the heart of the project.”
The location of next year’s festival is Dungarvan in County Waterford, Ireland. The festival has previously been held in Wexford (1982), Gweedore (1990), Tralee (1998) and Galway (2008) in Ireland, and Newcastle, Co. Down (1986), Derry (1994), Belfast (2003), Newry (2010) in Northern Ireland.
Love/Hate
Damien Geoghegan, chairperson of Dungarvan and Lismore District Council, said: “The Celtic Media Festival is highly regarded in the broadcast industry. The work the festival does to promote the languages of the Celtic nations and regions is hugely valuable, and hosting the festival in Dungarvan will be of great cultural and economic benefit to the town. We are very much looking forward to welcoming this prestigious festival, and all of its delegates to Dungarvan in 2016.”
Highlights of the final day of the festival included the inspiring panel discussions Format for Success - a discussion on how, with the right format, a simple idea can turn into a world-wide phenomenon - and What’s the Score with Drama? - a discussion on the importance of a score in creating an atmosphere. The chair of the Celtic Media Festival Board, Pádhraic Ó Ciardha, chaired a discussion with Aonghas MacNeacail, Cerith Williams, Rónán Mac Con Iomaire on indigenous language broadcasters making their content accessible to the non-core audience.
The three days of the festival saw panel discussions and workshops featuring key commissioners from BBC, Channel 4, RTÉ, BBC NI, BBC Scotland, UTV Ireland, S4C and TG4, plus the festival’s keynote speech delivered by MSP Mike Russell. The key players responsible for breaking Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations as a news story - Stuart Millar, the Guardian’s Head of News, and Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian’s Defence and Intelligence Correspondent, also appeared alongside Luke Moody from Britdoc, the distributor of Laura Poitras’ Academy and BAFTA award winning documentary Citizenfour, in what was another highlight from the festival.
Provost Alex Graham said: “The Celtic Media Festival has been a huge success and has generated a real buzz in the City. Inverness has the infrastructure to host national and international cultural events such as this festival which are important to our development and the local economy. The Gaelic language and culture are at the heart of life in Inverness and the Highlands, and are key to Education, Health and Well-being, the Arts, Heritage and Media and Economic Regeneration in our region.”
Pádhraic Ó Ciardha, chair of the Celtic Media Festival Board, said: “By any reckoning, this has been the biggest and best Celtic Media Festival yet. Over 400 delegates have enjoyed a programme of truly inspiring panel discussions and sessions here at Eden Court over the past few days, and the people of Inverness have been wonderful hosts. We’re delighted that this year’s festival has been so successful, and are hugely excited to take the festival to Dungarvan for the very first time in 2016.”
Catriona Logan, Celtic Media festival producer, said: “Inverness has been a fantastic location for the 36th Celtic Media Festival, and I’d like to thank everyone who has helped make this year’s event such a success. We’d like to extend our congratulations to all of this year’s winners and thank all broadcasters for their entries this year - we received a record-breaking 500 submissions, so these are the most hotly contested Torc Awards yet. I’m also thrilled to announce that next year we return to Ireland – we’re very much looking forward to bringing the festival to Dungarvan.”
www.celticmediafestival.co.uk
Torc Award 2015 winners
Kieran Hegarty Award for Innovation
Prosiect iBeacons Oriel Plas-Glyn-y-Weddw
Wales
Cwmni Da
Spirit of the festival
Páidí ó Sé – Rí an Pharóiste
Ireland
TG4/Magamedia
Animation
The Hunchback in the Park
Wales
BBC Cymru Wales
Arts
Dolores Keane: A Storm in the Heart
Ireland
RTÉ/Scratch Films Ltd
Best app
Seamus Heaney: Five Fables
Ireland
Flickerpix/Touch Press
Children’s
Katie Morag
Scotland
Move on Up
Current Affairs
The Disappeared
Ireland
BBC NI/RTÉ/Erica Starling Productions
Drama series
Love/Hate
Ireland
RTÉ/Octagon Films Ltd
Entertainment
Dim Byd
Wales
S4C/Cwmni Da
Factual entertainment
Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience
Wales
BBC Wales/Zipline Creative
Factual series
The Quest For Bannockburn
Scotland
BBC Scotland
Factual single
Close to Evil
Ireland
RTÉ/Praxis Pictures
Feature length drama
Patrick’s Day
Ireland
Ignition Film Productions
Radio documentary
Call of the Dark
Ireland
RTÉ Radio 1
Radio music programme
Another Country
Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Radio presenter
Michelle Nic Grianna
Ireland
RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
Radio sports programme
Documentary on One – Never Knocked Down
Ireland
RTÉ Radio 1
Radio station of the year
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
Scotland
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
Short drama
Sínte
Ireland
Síol Scéal
Sport
Arkle
Ireland
TG4/Touchline Media
Young People
Being Sixteen in 2014
Scotland
BBC Scotland