11/01/2007

Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto [+see also:
trailer
film profile] leads this years nominations for the Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs) with 10 nominations, ahead of Brian Kirk’s Middletown (nine), Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
interview: Rebecca O’Brien
film profile] (seven) and John Boorman’s The Tiger’s Tail (seven).

The fourth IFTAs, set to take place in Dublin on February 9, will give awards in 32 different categories. Sixty-one nominations were given to projects supported by the Irish Film Board.

Breakfast on Pluto, The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Middletown are Best Film contenders, alongside David Gleeson’s The Front Line [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Niall Heery’s unreleased feature Small Engine Repair [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

In another strong year for Irish acting, some of Ireland’s top talent received multiple nominations, such as Cillian Murphy, who is vying for Best Actor for Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and Ruth Negga (Ireland’s 2006 Shooting Star), nominated in both the Best Actress (Isolation) and Best supporting Actress (Breakfast on Pluto) categories.

Irish star actors working internationally are also shortlisted, including Pierce Brosnan (The Matador), Colin Farrell (Miami Vice) and Fionnula Flanagan (Transamerica); as well as in the technical categories, such as cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (World Trade Center) and costume designers Joan Bergin (The Prestige [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Consolata Boyle ( The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile]) (see focus).

The special Breakthrough Talent Award, sponsored by the IFB & the NIFTC, has six nominees, including actors Padraic Delaney (The Wind That Shakes the Barley), Orla Fitzgerald (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) and Domhnall Gleeson (Studs [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), writer/director Heery (Small Engine Repair) and director Brian Kirk (Middletown).

The five features running for Best International Film are Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Greengrass’ United 93 and Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile].