The Audi Dublin International Film Festival finished on Wednesday night with the World Premiere of Mark O’Rowe’s The Delinquent Season. Cast members Cillian Murphy, Andrew Scott, Eva Birthistle and Catherine Walker were in attendance. Rescheduled due to the extreme weather of early March, the star-studded evening provided a fitting closing night to Ireland’s premier film festival. In 2018, the festival screened over 100 of the best new films from across the world, including six world premieres, countless special guests and the first Immersive Stories: VR Conference and Exhibition.
With the final votes for the AUDI-ence Award tallied up from audiences at all the festival’s new films, the winner of the prestigious award was announced as Oscar-nominated Irish animation The Breadwinner, which had its gala Irish premiere at ADIFF. The winner receives a prize from Audi of a VIP trip to the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. Now in its 11th year, previous Irish feature winners of the award include The Farthest, Once, Viva, Waveriders, and Broken Song.
On behalf of our entire cast, crew, funders and producers across Ireland, Canada and Luxembourg, I am absolutely thrilled with the ADIFF AUDI-ence Award. The Breadwinner was a massive collaborative effort, and to have the film honoured at such a wonderful festival as ADIFF, makes me very proud of all involved with its creation.
Nora Twomey – Director, The Breadwinner
I was thrilled to see the extraordinary response from the festival audience to The Breadwinner and I’m proud to congratulate the film’s creative team on winning the ADIFF AUDI-ence Award. Director Nora Twomey, in her solo directorial debut, has taken a much-loved book and fashioned a magical tale of survival with Cartoon Saloon’s signature visual flair. This award once again highlights Ireland’s reputation as a global powerhouse of innovative and successful animation.
Gráinne Humphreys – Festival Director , ADIFF
The Breadwinner takes us to the streets of Afghanistan via Kilkenny’s Cartoon Saloon. The heroine is Parvana, an 11-year-old girl whose family struggles for a better life under Taliban rule. Based on Deborah Ellis’s novel, Parvana disguises herself as a boy to help her family survive following the wrongful arrest of her father. Twomey’s powerful film drew the attention of UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, who is an Executive Producer. The Breadwinner will be released nationwide on May 25th 2018.
The Audi Dublin International Film Festival will return in early 2019 to bring the world’s best films to Dublin with dates to be announced in the coming weeks.