Boosting Our Economy - Celebrating Our Culture - Enhancing Our Children's Education

Boosting Our Economy - Celebrating Our Culture - Enhancing Our Children's Education

News & Events

Celtic Media Festival reveals nominees for 2018 awards



Date Posted: March 8, 2018

The Celtic Media Festival has revealed the nominees for the prestigious Torc Awards for Excellence, including several nominations for Northern Ireland talent. The winners are set to be revealed at the 39th Festival between 2-4 May in Llanelli, Wales.

Nominees from across the U.K., Ireland and Europe will compete across 23 award categories, including arts, comedy, current affairs, drama, factual, sport, radio, and more. Entries for the 2018 Awards surpassed the 500 mark, with the festival consistently attracting submissions from across the range of Celtic nations and regions. 10 separate juries undertook 16 meetings over 250 hours of listening and viewing to produce a shortlist of the very best in Celtic productions in the past year.

Single Documentary, the most entered category at every Celtic Media Festival, had over 70 entries this year with 13 nominations covering a multitude of subjects. Wave Goodbye To Dinosaurs, which received funding support from Northern Ireland Screen via Invest NI, is the extraordinary story of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, a cross-community party formed in 1996 by local working and middle class women. The women ran a door-to-door campaign to win two seats at the historic peace talks, which culminated in the Good Friday Agreement.

In Drama Series, critically acclaimed An Klondike (TG4), is the first Western to be made in Ireland and tells the story of the Connolly Brothers;  three Irish emigrants who travel from Montana to the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890’s in the hope of striking it rich. An Klondike will go up against crime drama  Bang (S4C), dark comic drama Can’t Cope Won’t Cope (RTÉ)  and Dalia, a modista (TVG), Fin ar Bed (France Télévisions) and The Replacement (BBC One).

Several of the projects nominated at this year’s awards have received funding support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund (ILBF) including animated film An Béal Bocht. The animation, which was created by Raw Nerve Productions, portrays the life story of a young Gael reflecting on his life from Sligo Gaol. Documentary drama Rocky Ros Muc, which was directed and produced by Belfast based production company Below the Radar, is nominated in the Sports Documentary category. The film tells the story of world-class boxer Sean Mannion who left the Irish-speaking village of Ros Muc in Galway, for Boston, in the 1970s. And finally, Irish language radio station Raidió Fáilte has received a nomination in the Radio Station of the Year category.

Festival Director Catriona Logan said: “We are delighted to announce our nominees on Facebook Live for the first time in Celtic Media Festival’s History. The quality of the nominees truly shows the quality of the programmes being made in the Celtic nations and regions. The juries had a very hard job in deciding which of the outstanding entries to shortlist and we feel that this is an extremely strong nominee list. We look forward to welcoming nominees and delegates to Llanelli in May.”

A list of the Northern Ireland talent nominated can be found below. A full list of the nominees can be found here.

ANIMATION

Title                                                                                                Broadcaster / Production Company       

An Béal Bocht                                                                                    TG4 / Raw Nerve Production & Defacto films

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME

Title                                                                                                 Broadcaster / Production Company       

Pablo                                                                                                     RTÉ / Cbeebies / Paper Owl Films

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY

Title                                                                                             Broadcaster / Production Company       

Wave Goodbye To Dinosaurs                                                      BBC Northern Ireland / Fine Point Films

SPORTS DOCUMENTARY

Title                                                                                               Broadcaster / Production Company       

Rocky Ros Muc                                                                                  TG4 / Below The Radar TV

DRAMA SERIES

Title                                                                                             Broadcaster / Production Company       

Can’t Cope Won’t Cope                                                                 RTÉ / Deadpan Pictures

COMEDY

Title                                                                                             Broadcaster / Production Company       

The Blame Game                                                                              BBC Northern Ireland / Moondog

RADIO COMEDY

Title                                                                                             Broadcaster / Production Company       

A Perforated Ulster                                                                         BBC Radio Ulster / Hole In The Wall Productions

RADIO DOCUMENTARY

Title                                                                                              Broadcaster / Production Company       

Feen of the Tober                                                                             BBC Radio Ulster / BBC Gaeilge

RADIO MAGAZINE SHOW

Title                                                                                               Broadcaster / Production Company       

Seo an Saol                                                                                         BBC Radio Ulster / BBC Gaeilge

RADIO MUSIC PROGRAMME (LIVE)

Title                                                                                               Broadcaster / Production Company       

Folk Club with Lynette Fay                                                            BBC Radio Ulster

RADIO SPORTS

Title                                                                                             Broadcaster / Production Company       

Croí na Craoibhe                                                                             BBC Radio Ulster / BBC Gaeilge

Foyle Sportsound – Life without a Leader                                 BBC Radio Foyle

Stories in Sound: Split the Sap                                                    BBC Radio Ulster

RADIO PRESENTER OF THE YEAR

Title                                                                                                 Broadcaster / Production Company       

John Toal                                                                                             BBC Radio Ulster

RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR

Title                                                                                                Broadcaster / Production Company       

BBC Radio Foyle                                                                               BBC Radio Foyle

BBC Radio Ulster                                                                              BBC Radio Ulster

Raidió Fáilte                                                                                       Raidió Fáilte

KIERAN HEGARTY AWARD FOR INNOVATION

Title                                                                                                Broadcaster / Production Company

Pablo’s Art World Adventure                                                          Paper Owl Films

© 2024 Northern Ireland Screen. All Rights Reserved