The nominees for the coveted IFTA Rising Star award have been announced.
The gong will be handed to the lucky winner at the IFTA Awards ceremony hosted by Deirdre O’Kane on April 9.
The 2016 nominees are: Rebecca Daly (Writer/Director), Alex Fegan (Writer/Director), Stephen Fingleton (Writer/Director) and Barry Ward (actor).
Nominated: Rebecca Daly
Rebecca directed her first short film in 2006 and recently received widespread acclaim for her movie Mammal starring Oscar nominee Melanie Griffths.
The flick made its debut at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Filmmaker Alex directed and edited Older Than Ireland in 2015 which looks at the lives of 30 people in Ireland aged 100 years of age or older.
Nominated: Alex Fegan
It went on to win the Irish Times Ticket Award for Best Documentary and after its general release in September 2015, it became one of the most successful Irish documentaries of all time.
Stephen’s film The Survivalist premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film festival to much critical praise.
He was nominated for an Outstanding Debut by BAFTA as well as being recognized as a BAFTA Breakthrough talent.
Nominated: Stephen Fingleton
The Survivalist went on to be nominated for four IFTA Awards, including Best Film and Best Director for the filmmaker.
Barry Ward got his start in the acting business with a role in Roddy Doyle’s BBC drama Family at the age of 14.
The actor most recently starred in RTE’s Rebellion opposite last year’s Rising Star award winner Sarah Greene.
Nomainted: Alex Fegan
“This important Award showcases four superb Irish talents who have proved themselves to be world class professionals in their fields and leading Irish creative professionals to spearhead and continue Ireland’s golden era of filmmaking into the future,” Áine Moriarty, Chief Executive of the Irish Film and Television Academy said.
“IFTA is proud to showcase Ireland’s Rising Stars and acknowledges the partnership with the Irish Film Board across this Award supporting new Irish industry talent.”
The IFTA Film & Drama Awards will take place at the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin on Saturday, April 9. The ceremony will be broadcast on TV3 on Sunday, April 10th at 9pm.
