#IrishAbroad: Tom Ryan’s Twice Shy wins at Irish Film Festival Australia

News from Down Under, where filmmaker Tom Ryan has won the award for Best Young Director at this year’s Irish Film Festival Australia for his current feature film Twice Shy.

Twice Shy follows the story of young Irish couple as they embark on a road trip from Ireland to the UK as a result of an unplanned pregnancy. The film stars Shane Murray-Corcoran and Iseult Casey in the lead roles of Andy and Maggie, with support from A-List Irish actors Ardal O’Hanlon and Pat Shortt, and was produced by Fionn Greger.

Twice Shy is the 2nd feature film from the 30-year-old Tipperary writer/ director following on from the success of his award-winning debut movie Trampoline. Ryan began his career as a camera intern in New York on the set of indie movies such as Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse and Steve McQueen’s Shame. Ryan learned a lot from these sets and carried these skills forward to the set of his first film Trampoline which is available to stream on Amazon.

Twice Shy premiered to a sold-out audience at last year’s Galway Film Fleadh and has gone on to receive much praise, including Donald Clarke of the Irish Times who has called the film “a beautifully constructed indie” and Film Ireland who said: “it was a deeply moving portrait of human life”. Twice Shy has also just screened at the Dingle International Film Festival where it was described by the organisers as one of the “most poignant and socially relevant screenings” at the festival.

The film screened as part of the Irish Film Festival Australia in Sydney on Sunday, April 2nd where it awarded director Tom Ryan with the ‘Best Young Director’ award. The film was introduced by the Sydney Rose of Tralee, Brianna Parkins, who won praise at the Rose of Tralee Festival last year after calling for a repeal of the 8th amendment in Ireland.

It’s such a thrill to win an award like this. There was some fantastic competition at the festival so it’s a huge privilege to be this year’s recipient and it’s great to see that the film, with such an important message, is making an impact on audiences worldwide.
Tom Ryan, Director

It’s a fantastic achievement for Tom to win this award and it’s a credit to him as the director of the film. I hope this continues to progress the film as we now prepare for our next screening, which will be at the Marché in Cannes in May.
Fionn Greger, Producer