Irish Casting Director Amy Rowan has been shortlisted for the first European Casting Director Award for her work on Simon Fitzmaurice’s My Name is Emily.
The award for best European Casting Director will be presented at the Locarno Film Festival at a ceremony on Sunday, August 7. The shortlist of 7 was chosen by the International Network of Casting Directors from 21 submissions and will go forward to a jury chosen by the Festival. With this initiative, the festival and the ICDN hope to shine a light on the craft of casting.
Speaking on the nominees, Nadia Dresti, Delegate of the Artistic Direction, Head of International said:
From the early development phase of raising finance to the final film’s promotion, the casting director is the person who accompanies directors and producers through the entire production journey.
Rowan is from Dublin and has been working in casting in Ireland for 18 years. Among her many previous credits are the Lenny Abrahamson films Adam and Paul and Garage, Stella Days with Martin Sheen, and TV series Pure Mule, The Clinic, and Moone Boy. Her most recent work includes Return to Montauk from Oscar-winning German director Volker Schloendorff and the bilingual Irish/English film The Song of Granite for Pat Collins. She is currently working again with writer Mark O’Halloran on a new feature film.
My Name is Emily stars Irish actress Evanna Lynch (Harry Potter) and newcomer George Webster. It was filmed in Ireland in the summer of 2014 and played in cinemas here earlier this year. It is the first feature film of Simon Fitzmaurice, a filmmaker with Motor Neurone Disease.
The nominees for European Casting Director Award:
Simone Bär (Denmark) for Land of Mine by Martin Pieter Zandvliet, 2015, Denmark/Germany
Antoinette Boulat and Elsa Pharaon (France) for Standing Tall by Emmanuelle Bercot, 2015, France
An Dorthe Braker (Germany) for Labyrinth of Lies by Giulio Ricciarelli, 2015, Germany
Amy Rowan (Ireland) for My Name is Emily by Simon Fitzmaurice, 2015, Ireland/Sweden/Norway
Yngvill Kolset Haga (Norway) for One Night in Oslo by Eirik Svensson, 2014, Norway
Magdalena Szwarcbart (Poland) for The Mighty Angel by Wojciech Smarzowski, 2014, Poland
Pauline Hansson (Sweden) for Drifters, by Peter Grönlund, 2015, Sweden
A jury chosen by the Festival del film Locarno, composed of Swiss director Ursula Meier, German producer Peter Rommel (Rommel Film e.K.) and French actress Clotilde Courau, will choose among them the best European Casting Director. The Award Ceremony will take place on Sunday August 7th at 5:30pm, and will be moderated by Fionnuala Halligan, Reviews Editor and Chief Film Critic of Screen International, Media Partner of the initiative.