Cork Winners 08

The Cork Film Festival has announced the winners of its Short film Awards:

Best Irish Short Film
"Féileachán/Driving Lesson" written & directed by Cecilia McAllister

Special Mentions:
"Danger High Voltage" written by Thomas Martin; directed by Luke McManus
"An Foireann Codladh" written by Guy Fee; directed by Danann Breathnach

Claire Lynch Award for Best First-Time Irish Director of a Short Film
"The Door" written & directed by Juanita Wilson

Special Mentions:
"Out Of The Blue" written & directed by Michael Lavelle
"The Rooster, The Crocodile And The Night Sky" written & directed by Padraig Fagan

Best International Short Film
"2 Birds" written & directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson, Iceland

Special Mentions:
"Clean Hands, Dirty Soap" written by Adam Mourad; directed by Karim Fanous, Egypt
"Giants" written & directed by Fabio Mollo, Italy

Prix UIP Cork for Best European Short Film
"14" written & directed by Asitha Ameresekere, England

'Made In Cork' Award for Best Short Film
"Matty Kiely's Last Day" written & directed by Ed Godsell

Special Mentions:
"Afternoons With Johnny" written & directed by Maximilian le Cain
"Rock With Your Cork Out" written & directed by Egomotion

Youth Jury Award for Best International Short Film
"Giants" written & directed by Fabio Mollo, Italy

Gradam Gael Linn for Best Short Film in the Irish Language
"An Foireann Codladh" written by Guy Fee; directed by Danann Breathnach

Award of the Festival for Best Short Film
"Journey To The Forest" written & directed by Jörn Staeger, Germany

Outlook Award for Best LGBT Short Film
"James" written & directed by Conor Clements

Audience Award for Best Irish Short Film
"Out Of The Blue" written & directed by Michael Lavelle

Audience Award for Best International Short Film
"On The Line" written by Reto Caffi & Philippe Zweifel; directed by Reto Caffi, Switzerland

Often short films are written and directed by the same person, however this is not always the case as can be seen in the above sample.

Most film festivals (including the Irish ones) never credit the writer. In order to complete this list I had to conduct investigative research in order to discover if there were separate writers for the above films - quite a number turned up.

It's downright shameful to laud the director, and often the producer, of a short film and omit the writer. Film Festivals should make it their policy to credit the writer of any film - short or feature-length.

Otherwise they are participating in a type of creative theft.