O'Donnell celebrates Audience Award in Edinburgh
Irish film-maker Damien O'Donnell is today toasting the success of his movie Inside I'm Dancing, after it scooped the prestigious Standard Life Audience Award at the 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Co-financed by WT2 (the low-budget wing of Working Title) and the Irish Film Board (IFB), Inside I'm Dancing led a prestigious field in the audience poll which included The Motorcycle Diaries, Hero and Dear Frankie.
Fellow WT2 and IFB co-financed film Mickybo & Me scooped third place. Previous winners of this award include box office hits The Full Monty, Billy Elliot, Rabbit Proof Fence and Amelie.
Inside I'm Dancing tells the story of a young man with cerebal palsy whose life is transformed by maverick Rory O’Shea, when an unlikely friendship between the two is formed and they embark on a journey of discovery. It was inspired by a story by Galway-based writer, Christian O’Reilly with the screenplay written by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye, The Constant Gardner).
Octagon Film Producers Juanita Wilson, James Flynn and Catherine Tiernan travelled with actress Romola Garai to Edinburgh to collect the award at a reception at the Caledonian Hilton yesterday.
"We are absolutely delighted for Damien and everyone else involved in this project," said producer Juanita Wilson.
"It is a privilege to win the audience award which is such an important impra mater for the film and we would like to thank the festival for providing us with such an excellent platform for the forthcoming release."
Inside I’m Dancing will be distributed by Momentum in Ireland and the UK in October and will be distributed by Focus in the United States in early 2005.
