The tenth edition of the IndieCork Festival kicked off on 2 October, and the gathering is set to continue unspooling online until 16 October. However, its physical component was brought to a close by the traditional awards ceremony held at the historic Gate Cinema on Sunday 9 October.

This year’s Spirit of IndieCork Award went to Luke McManus, defined as “a true original, independent filmmaker, making films of great worth, integrity and artistry”. During the gathering, McManus presented his feature North Circular [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] (Ireland), a documentary musical that travels the length of Dublin’s North Circular Road, from Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, exploring the history, music and streetscapes of a thoroughfare that links some of the country’s most beloved and infamous places. The picture played at Dublin, Sheffield and Galway, and it is being sold internationally by Lightdox.

Meanwhile, the Louis Marcus Documentary Award was bestowed upon Adriana Barbosa and Fernanda Pessoa’s Swing and Sway (Brazil). The film follows the two filmmakers, one living in São Paulo, the other living in Los Angeles, two cities different from each other yet similar in the political and social chaos that 2020 brought upon them. In a period of isolation, far away from each other, Adriana and Fernanda reconnect through video-letters, inspired by the poetic gaze of 16 women experimental filmmakers. Jurors Lelia Doolan (of the Galway Film Fleadh), Anne Gaschutz (of Filmfest Dresden and Locarno) and University College Cork lecturer Barry Monahan were “taken by this film’s daring blend of styles and its experimental formal play”, which “creates a precarious coherence – justified by its self-imposed manifesto – between the different worlds of the two filmmakers whose experiences it weaves together”. Moreover, two Honourable Mentions were given to Philipp Fusennegger’s I Am the Tigress (Austria) and the aforementioned North Circular.

Here is the full list of this year’s award winners:

Spirit of IndieCork Award
Luke McManus

Made in Cork Award
Padraig – Brian Benjamin Dwyer (Ireland/France)

Best Emerging Irish Female Director Award
Anna Czarska – Mildly Different (Ireland)

Louis Marcus Documentary Award
Swing and Sway – Adriana Barbosa and Fernanda Pessoa (Brazil)
Honourable Mentions
I Am the Tigress – Philipp Fusennegger (Austria)
North Circular [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] – Luke McManus (Ireland)

Best Irish Short Film
Dash – Rory Fleck Byrne (Ireland)
Honourable Mention
Where do all the old gays go? - Cathy Dunne (Ireland)

Best World Short
Freedom Swimmer – Olivia Martin McGuire (UK)
Honourable Mention
Staging Death – Jan Soldat (Austria)

art(ist)FILM award
Saudade – Eimear Young (Ireland)

IndieCork Music Award
Boa Morte – Paul Ruxton, Maurice Halissey, Cormac Gahan and Bill Twomey