This year’s European Co-Production Award – Prix EurImages, an award acknowledging the decisive role of co-productions in the European film industry, goes to Irish producer Ed Guiney. The award will be presented during the European Film Awards Ceremony in Riga on Saturday, 13 December 2014.
Other Irish nominees at the European Film Awards include Brendan Gleeson in the category of Best Actor for his performance in Calvary and The Missing Scarf in the category of Best Short Film.
Ed Guiney co-founded Element Pictures with Andrew Lowe in 2001. Today, Element has offices in Dublin and London, working across production, distribution, and exhibition.
Element has been involved in the production and distribution of over 30 feature films. Current and upcoming Element productions include Room, an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s award-winning best-selling novel, directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring Brie Larson, Joan Allen and William H. Macy, Yorgos Lanthimos’ first English language film, The Lobster starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux and Ben Whishaw, Gerard Barrett’s Glassland, starring Jack Reynor, Toni Colette and Will Poulter and Jerzy Skolimowski’s 11 Minutes.
Recently completed Element productions include Abrahamson’s latest film Frank, starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival; and Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, a co-production with Sixteen Films which screened in competition at Cannes in 2014.
Other recent films include What Richard Did (Lenny Abrahamson), starring Jack Reynor, which opened to great acclaim at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, Shadow Dancer (James Marsh) starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough, This Must Be The Place (Paolo Sorrentino) starring Sean Penn and Frances McDormand, The Guard (John Michael McDonagh), starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle (currently the most successful independent Irish film of all time), Garage, the follow up film to the award-winning Adam & Paul (EFA-nominated for the script), from the same team of writer Mark O’Halloran and director Lenny Abrahamson, which was selected for Director’s Fortnight at Cannes 2007 and won the CICAE Art and Essai award,The Wind That Shakes The Barley (Ken Loach), starring Cillian Murphy, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the EFA’s cinematography award, and The Magdelene Sisters (Peter Mullan) which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2001 and was nominated for the European Film Awards.