'It's surreal' says Offaly director whose movie is up for five IFTA awards

Offaly director Paddy Slattery said it felt "very surreal" to have his debut feature film, Broken Law, nominated in no fewer than five categories at the upcoming 2021 Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) awards.

The virtual awards event is being televised on Virgin Media One on Sunday, July 4. The nominations were announced on Tuesday morning and in addition to Broken Law there was welcome recognition for two other local productions.

Portarlington's Carla Mooney was nominated in the short animation category for Günter Falls in Love, made by her production company Cardel Entertainment.

The OFFline Film Festival's animators in residence, Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan, were also nominated in the same category for Her Song, which last month won the Best Animated Short Film prize at the Irish Animation Awards.

Paddy Slattery, a native of Clonbullogue, saw his debut film released in cinemas at the end of July. Broken Law revolves around two brothers on opposite sides of the law, one a Garda and the other a criminal.

It's been nominated for IFTA awards in the Best Film, Best Director, Best Script, Best Lead Actor (Tristan Heanue) and Best Supporting Actor (Ally Ní Chiaráin) categories.

Described by IFTA as an "electrifying thriller" which "crackles with energy", the film has been available on Netflix since the beginning of this year.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent last week, Paddy said the array of award nominations had not yet sunk in.

"I was up all night going through old files and early conversations around bringing the project together, and I even watched a few minutes of the film again on Netflix to try to get some perspective on it. It hasn't sunk in, really. Maybe down the line it might make sense," he said.

He had hoped the film might get nominated for its editing and for some of the performances by the cast, but he genuinely didn't expect nominations for its script or for his direction.

"As a director and a writer I still think I have a long way to go," he said, modestly. "As I'm writing the script for the next one, I realise how different I am now than I was two or three years ago when I was putting the finishing touches (on Broken Law)."

Broken Law was the highest-grossing Irish film at the box office last year, but Paddy acknowledged that this was a bittersweet accolade as the pandemic had obviously taken a major toll on cinema attendances.

"Leading into the release - based on social media and the media response in general - we had projected that it might do as well as the likes of Cardboard Gangsters and The Young Offenders, which did exceptionally well as independent films. We were on course to make a nice impression at the box office, but sadly Covid had different plans for us.

"As a producer, that was a difficult pill to swallow because financially we had raised the money independently, and put some of our own money into it, so we were relying on getting some money back in the cinema.

"That never materialised, which was difficult, but I can't sit here and complain because everything else has been a positive whirlwind."

Paddy said the response to the film picked up considerably when it was released on Netflix after Christmas.

"I don't know what the exact numbers were in terms of cinema-going, but I think about 20,000 people went to see it in the cinema.

"But it paled in comparison to the reaction we got a week after it was released on Netflix, in terms of social media, emails, and phone calls. Suddenly we were like, 'Oh, right. So this is what it's like to have an audience!'"

Paddy is currently working on a script for his second feature film, with the working title of Reverse. He has no shortage of ideas for future projects but said the motivation to get started again after Broken Law had been a struggle at times.

"It kind of felt like I'd finished running a marathon, stopped for a drink, and then people were asking if I was ready to go again. My mind could do it, but my body was saying otherwise," he said.

He also admitted that he wants to achieve something even more significant with his next film.

"You have a licence to make mistakes with the first one, because it's your first time out the gate. But with the second one you have to establish not just good work but sort of an identity among millions of other identities.

"As dismissive as this sounds we knew, realistically, that we weren't going into Broken Law to make a masterpiece. We were going to make an impression.

"If I ever want to live up to some of the great filmmakers I've got to dig deeper, and the next film has got to hit those high marks. We have to make people sit up in all the right places. That's my motivation.

"I don't want it to be, 'ah isn't he great? Paddy's a wheelchair-user, we should encourage him,' and all that kind of craic. I want to be judged now among my peers as an equal in the film industry."

While not wanting to disclose a plotline for the next film just yet, he revealed that it's a very personal project.

"It's probably going to be the most personal story that I will ever tell. It's the one where I feel if that if I have any purpose or call in life it's to tell this particular story," he said.

Paddy will be continuing to work on the script this year, with the ambition of starting filming on it later next year or early in 2023.

In the meantime, he's looking forward to the IFTA awards on July 4.

"Win, lose or draw, we'll definitely celebrate!" he said.