By Michelle Crawley
A film written and directed by Mulli-ngar man, Terry McMahon, has scooped a top award at the 2014 Cork Film Festival.
‘Patrick’s Day’, McMahon’s second feature film, continued its roaring success with film critics and audiences alike when it was named the winner of the Audience Award at the Cork Film Festival on Sunday evening last, 16 November.
Speaking to Topic this week, Terry McMahon, who grew up in D’Alton Park, Mullingar, and previously wrote and directed popular Irish film ‘Charlie Casanova’, expressed his delight with winning the latest accolade. “It is an amazing thing to think that this film exists separate to me and has received such great reviews. We didn’t think we would have a hope in hell of winning this award,” expressed Terry with merriment. There were two screenings of the film shown at the Cork Opera House on Friday to audiences who voted in strong numbers for McMahon’s latest film, giving it their top seal of approval.
ACCOLADES
This is the latest in a long series of accolades which the Mullingar writer and director has picked up over the course of the year for the film. The film, which tells the story of a mentally ill young man who falls in love with a flight attendant much to the disapproval of his mother, has received wonderful reviews at film festivals and previews over the summer and autumn, sharing the Best Irish Feature award at the Galway Film Fleadh in July, and going on to win three awards at the Woodstock Film Festival in October, including Best Feature Narrative, Best Cinematography and Best Editing of a Feature Narrative. It also won two jury awards at the Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival in Michigan in the categories for Best Screenplay and Best Actor, which was awarded to Moe Dunford who played the lead role of Patrick in the film.
In fact, October proved to be a very busy month for Terry, who got the opportunity to screen ‘Patrick’s Day’ at the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) theatre on Sunset Boulevard in LA after it won the coveted Screen Director’s Guild ‘Finder Series’ award. “To get the chance to go to the Director’s Guild of America Theatre was incredible. It was a place I had passed by many a time but never did I ever think I would be there, never mind with my own film,” he recalled fondly.
FEBRUARY 2015
The coming months look set to be just as busy for McMahon, who will be travelling to France with the film in December, followed by a trip to the U.S, before returning home for the general release of ‘Patrick’s Day’ in cinemas across Ireland in February 2015.
