The Secret of Kells scores a home victory

The Irish-themed animation "The Secret of Kells" brought it all back home recently, when it won the Best Irish Film award at the 2009 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. It won against strong challenges from fellow nominees Five Minutes of Heaven, The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy and The Daisy Chain.

Writers on Kells are Tomm Moore for the story and Fabrice Ziolkowski for the screenplay. Ziolkwski is a prolific writer for TV in France, reflecting the fact that Kells was a co-production between France, Ireland and Belgium, with a lot of talent from each country involved. It is currently on release in France and Belgium.

Full list of nominations and winners:

BEST PERFORMANCE
Tom Hardy - Bronson (Winner)
Toni Servillo - Il Divo
Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino
Meryl Streep - Doubt

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Winner)
Religilous
Chris & Don: A Love Story
American Teen
Encounters at the End of the World

BEST IRISH FILM
The Secret of Kells (Winner)
Five Minutes of Heaven
The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy
The Daisy Chain

BEST DIRECTOR
Paolo Sorrentino - Il Divo (Winner)
Laurent Cantet - The Class
Werner Herzog - Encounters at the End of the World
Tomas Alfredson - Let The Right One In

BEST FILM
Let the Right One In (Winner)
Il Divo
In the Loop
The Class

"Slumdog" and "In Bruges" pick up Bafta awards

With a remarkable seven out of eleven nominations, last night was definitely "Slumdog Millionaire"s night at the annual BAFTA award ceremony in London. The film won Best Film and six other awards: director for Danny Boyle, adapted screenplay, music, cinematography, editing and sound.

According to a report in Screen Daily, Boyle said it felt 'amazing' to win, adding that he wished to keep his links with India and was in talks about shooting a thriller in the country. Writer Simon Beaufoy said he believed the film had captured the imagination of the world. "It has come out at a time when we need a film about hope," he said.

The Best Original Screenplay went to Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges", another personal favourite. For the full list of awards and interviews with Boyle, Beaufoy and others, visit the Bafta site.

UPDATE: Martin McDonagh picked up the Best Script award for "In Bruges" at the Irish Film & Television Awards. The film itself won the best International award. "Hunger" picked up the Best Film award.

Slumdog Millionaire: the writer's review

If you haven't seen "Slumdog Millionaire" yet, I can but join the people recommending that you do so. It is very much the film of the season, matching only "Gomorra" in terms of intensity and scope.

The film is based on Vikas Swarup's book "Q&A", adapted by Simon Beaufoy (the writer of "The Full Monty"). As The Script Factory points out, the movie is an absolute masterclass in the use of the flashback. Trevor Johnston has posted a review of the movie on their site. But do yourself a favour, only read the review after seeing the movie.

Meanwhile, the shooting script has been published with notes from Danny Boyle and an intro from Beaufoy. The book is interesting as there are some minor differences between the script and the final edit.