Lost & Found wins Best Foreign Film at the Arizona International Film Festival

Irish Writer/Director Liam O Mochain’s third feature film Lost & Found has won the Best Foreign Film Award at the 27^th Arizona International Film Festival.

The award was announced on the closing night of the festival on Monday 30^th  April 30.  Liam O Mochain (WC, The Book That Wrote Itself) said on hearing the news –  “It is fantastic to have won such a great award at our first international film festival with the film.  Lost & Found received a great reaction from the audience in Arizona.  It is a great festival and a long- standing supporter of indie films, showing 86 films from 22 countries”.  Producer Bernie Grummell added ‘We are delighted at winning at such a prestigious film festival.  It is a credit to all the cast and crew who worked on the film.  We look forward to audiences all over Ireland getting to see Lost & Found when Eclipse Pictures release the film in cinemas this summer’.

The Arizona award follows successful festival screenings at Dingle Film Festival, IndieCork and a sold-out world premiere at the 2017 Galway Film Fleadh where Donald Clarke of the Irish Times called it one of “the best films from this year’s Galway Film Fleadh” and Scott Larson from scottmovies.com said the film was ‘reminiscent of Kevin Smith’s Clerks, touching, funny and thoughtful”. Lost & Found is a feature film with 7 interconnecting stories set in and around a lost & found office of an Irish train station.  All segments are inspired by true stories, share a theme of something lost or found, and characters that come in and out of each other’s lives.  It was filmed over 5 years and completed in May 2017.  O Mochain says “The cast, crew and post team were great to work with. They were very dedicated to the film and kept coming back every year to work on the next segment”

The ensemble cast includes Aoibhín Garrihy (The Fall; Fair City; Dancing with the Stars), Liam Carney (Red Rock; Outlander), Norma Sheahan (Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope; Moone Boy), Sean Flanagan (Foil Arms & Hog), Anthony Morris (Games of Thrones), Seamus Hughes (Jimmy’s Hall; Klondike), Barbara Adair (Derry Girls), Brendan Conroy (Vikings), Tom O Suilleabhain (Maze), Olga Wehrly (The Clinic), Diarmuid Noyes (Borgia), Liam O Mochain (WC), Lynette Callaghan (Cold Feet), Daniel Costelloe (Albert Nobbs), and Donncha Crowley (Fr Ted). The creative team behind ‘Lost & Found’ are writer/director Liam O Mochain, producer Bernie Grummell (WC; The Book That Wrote Itself), DoP Fionn Comerford (Vikings; Roy), production designer David Wilson (Omagh; Some Mother’s Son), sound Niall O’Sullivan (Frank) & Philippe Faujas (Pure Mule), make up & hair Caoimhe Arrigan (Death of a President), editor Ciara Brophy (Oscar nominated The Crush), and composer Richie Buckley (WC; The General).

Lost & Found is O Mochain’s third feature film.  He has made numerous short films, documentaries and tv shows.  His 2007 feature film WC won Best Foreign Film at Las Vegas International Film Festival.  WC also screened at Montreal, Galway, Dublin and the Cairo Int. Film Festival.  Liam’s debut feature film The Book That Wrote Itself had its world premiere at the 1999 Galway Film Fleadh, International premiere at the 1999 Vancouver International Film Festival and went on to screen at many film festivals worldwide. Fortune, his first short film, won best short film at the1998 Worldfest Houston International Film Festival. His short film Covet was longlisted for an Academy Award in 2013.

Lost & Found opens at Irish cinemas in Summer 2018

A Cambodian Spring to hit Irish cinemas

Irish Director Chris Kelly’s award-winning documentary ‘A Cambodian Spring’ has been confirmed for release in cinemas across Ireland from 4^th May.

Little Ease Films and Zanzibar Films have announced that Eclipse Pictures will release their Award-winning documentary ‘A Cambodian Spring’ in Irish cinemas from 4^th May.  Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2017 Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, winner of Best Documentary at the Brooklyn Film Festival and nominated for Best Feature Documentary at 2018 Irish Film & Television Awards, the critically-acclaimed film has gone on to win a slew of other awards and feature in many other film festivals around the world. A Cambodian Spring is an intimate and unique portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and often violent development that is shaping modern-day Cambodia.  Shot over 6 years, the film charts the growing wave of land-rights protests that led to the ‘Cambodian Spring’ and the tragic events that followed.  This film is about the complexities – both political and personal, of fighting for what you believe in.

Director Chris Kelly said: “After more than nine years in the making, I am thrilled that A Cambodian Spring will have its Irish theatrical release on the 4th of May.  The film has been a huge labour of love for me, and I hope that the passion and care that went into making it comes through to the Irish audience and creates a memorable experience. A Cambodian Spring is for me a deeply personal film.  It is an exploration of what motivates us, what gives our lives meaning, and what happens when our personal desires colour and shape our actions.  It is an unapologetically subjective portrait of my time in Cambodia, of the people who shared their lives with me and of the shifting landscapes, both physical and emotional, that I found there.  There is a powerful original score by acclaimed electronic musician James Holden, whose soundtrack perfectly complements the decaying landscapes of the film.”

Edwina Forkin of Zanzibar Films said “It has been a pleasure to be involved with Chris Kelly for the last nine years on A Cambodian Spring and see him realise his film and pick up rave reviews and awards which are all well deserved.  Zanzibar’s involvement was to support the vision of Chris Kelly on his journey to help document and give a voice to tell the story of the injustice against this community in Cambodia.  We are very grateful to the support of Northern Irish Screen and The Irish Film Board as without this support this documentary would not have been made!”

Little Ease Films is an award-winning production company specialising in feature documentaries and video journalism.  Working for the Guardian, Al Jazeera, AFP, France 24, and others, film-maker Chris Kelly has produced award-winning documentaries, photographs, and video journalism on topics ranging from slavery in the Thai fishing industry, to the Rohingya refugee crisis, to rebel armies in South Sudan, to land grabs in Cambodia.

For more information on the film please visit: http://acambodianspring.com/

 

Here’s a full list of the movie’s awards and nominations:

AWARDS:

Awards Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, May – Winner Special Jury Prize (Canada)

Brooklyn Film Festival, – Winner Best Documentary (USA)

Cambodiatown Film Festival – Winner Best Documentary (USA)

DocsMX International Doc Festival, (Mexico) – Winner Jury Prize

Watch Docs Festival, December (Poland) – Special Mention

 

One World Media Awards – Shortlisted for Feature Documentary Category

Irish Film & Television Awards – Nominated for Best Feature Documentary 2018

Social Impact Media Awards – Special Mention – Feature Documentary Category