#IrishAbroad: Two Irish films win gold and platinum at the 49th Annual WorldFest-Houston

Everything is bigger in Texas, and it now looks like Irish films are going to be bigger there too, as independent feature film North Circular Road won a prestigious Gold REMI, and short The Clockmaker’s Dream won a Platinum REMI, at the 49th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival,

North Circular Road writer/director Donal Nugent was at the Gala ceremony on April 16th, to collect the award.

This is wonderful recognition for the film, fresh from the sell-out screening at the Light House cinema in Dublin in March. An exceptional team of talented actors and filmmakers has made this possible. Our next step is to take this film to audiences online. – Donal Nugent

A richly layered psychological drama that boasts powerful performances throughout, North Circular Road stars Lorna Larkin (The Light of Day) and Pat O’Donnell (Tin Can Man, The Looking Glass) and tells the story of weather-forecaster Janice Cadogan, who begins to see disturbing visions of a troubled couple in her new home.

Co-starring Patrick Molloy (Game of Thrones) and Vanessa Richter, North Circular Road is brought to screen by producers Kathy Horgan and Michael Parle (star of Night People) of Dark Window Media.

Directed by Cashell Horgan, The Clockmaker’s Dream is set in a fictional world, home to the most unusual collection of automatas created; there lives a clockmaker with his beloved wife. Every second of his day is dedicated to making sure every mechanical instrument in the town functions properly. That is until the day his wife dies. Crazed with despair, the clockmaker attempts to replace his lost love by building ‘the perfect woman’. His passion consumes him as each doll he builds leads to failure. With pressure on him to complete his task before time runs out, he soon realises that the key to the perfect woman is in her heart not her head.

Limerick actor Joe Mullins plays the Clockmaker. Joe is best known for his role in the IFTA award winning film, Pilgrim Hill by director Gerard Barrett, as well as Barrett’s follow-up Glassland. The rest of the cast Jennifer Meade, Conor O’Brien, David Collins, Johanna O’Brien, Lucy Dawson, Rebecca Ballinger, Megan Cleary, Eleanor O’Brien, Tara Wray, Jenny Loughman, Paul Fitzgerald, and Josh Hullinger. The film is narrated by noted thespian Jared Harris.

The Annual WorldFest-Houston is one of the oldest and best-loved independent film festivals in the world, with only the very best chosen for official selection from literally thousands of submissions. It gave first honours to Spielberg, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, David Lynch among others.

The REMI Award is named after the Artist Frederic Remington, who captured the spirit of Texas and The American West with his remarkable paintings and sculptures.