Birr man's short film nominated for IFTA award
By Rebekah O'Reilly
Birr filmmaker Nicky Larkin has been nominated for a prestigious Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) award.
The 23rd IFTA awards ceremony is taking place on Friday, February 20, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre.
Mr Larkn's short film 'Punt', which was screened locally at last year's OFFline Film Festival, is one of six nominees in the short film category at the IFTAs.
The film, written and directed by Mr Larkin and produced by Alanna Riddell Bond, centres around a heartbroken woman returning to the island of her happiest memory to end her life in the shadow of the 1994 World Cup.
But when her electric meter runs out, a coin hunt sparks an unlikely bet: Ireland to qualify.
"I'm delighted, it's nice to see people outside of the team agreeing that it's a good film," Mr Larkin said of the award nomination. "It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in July, so it's still quite early in the festival circuit."
The film has been shown at a number of other Irish film festivals to date, including the Belfast Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival, Disappear Here Film Festival in Donegal, and Offaly's OFFline Film Festival, eliciting quite the reaction from audiences across the country.
It is set to screen at the Dublin International Film Festival on Saturday, February 21.
"It's really gotten a big reaction so far. It's really nice to watch the film with an audience after spending so much time alone working on it. I did the edit too, so I've watched it hundreds of times," he said.
"My favourite screening was at the Galway Film Fleadh, where the audience just laughed the whole way through it. It's a surprise when you've seen it a million times, you kind of become immune to the humour of it.
"The first couple of minutes of the film are quite heavy, it's about a woman who goes to an island to take her life," he said.
"The electricity goes out, and she has a picture of her late husband who passed quite recently, so she doesn't want to do it in the dark, so she goes on a journey to find a pound coin so she can do it. It does get quite funny after the scene where the electricity goes out."
Speaking to the Offaly Independent about what's next, he said he's hoping to take 'Punt' international.
"We're hoping to have a international festival run next, although it's been a bit of a challenge because the two leads are Northern Irish, and their accents are quite thick - it's hard for American audiences to understand. We've had to put English subtitles on the film," Mr Larkin said.
"We have a couple of feature films in the works as well, so we're hoping this should be a nice boost for those too."
The short film Punt also features music by Birr singer-songwriter Mark Lyndon, whose song 'Nocturne' is featured in the opening scenes.
The single is featured on Mr Lyndon's upcoming debut album titled 'Silhouettes'.