BELFAST NATIVE Ciarán Hinds has been voted best actor at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for his performance in the new Irish film The Eclipse.
Funded by RTÉ, the Irish Film Board and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, it was produced by Robert Walpole through Dublin-based company Treasure Entertainment.
The film received enthusiastic reviews when it had its world premiere this week at the Tribeca festival. The awards were announced on Thursday night by the festival’s co-founders, Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal.
Shot in Cobh, Co Cork, last autumn, The Eclipse is a contemporary drama in which Hinds plays a woodwork teacher mourning the death of his wife and experiencing ghostly visitations.
Helping out at the annual literary festival in his hometown, he finds himself drawn to a visiting author (played by Danish actress Iben Hjejle) whose books deal with the supernatural. He then finds himself competing with a high-profile writer (Aidan Quinn) for her attention.
The Eclipse is the third feature film from Irish writer-director Conor McPherson, who made Saltwater and The Actors and whose plays include The Weir, Dublin Carol, Shining City and The Seafarer. He collaborated on the screenplay of The Eclipse with fellow playwright Billy Roche, on whose short story it is based.
Hinds (56) has worked extensively in film, television and theatre. He has featured in more than 50 films, including December Bride, Some Mother’s Son, Veronica Guerin, Calendar Girls, There Will Be Blood, Munich and the current release, Race to Witch Mountain. His TV roles include Julius Caesar in the recent series Rome, and he has appeared in Prime Suspect, Jane Eyre and The Mayor of Casterbridge. His latest stage role was in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre in London earlier this year.
The Tribeca festival jury members who chose Hinds as best actor were director Todd Haynes, producer Richard Fischoff and actors Uma Thurman, Meg Ryan and Bradley Cooper. At last year’s Tribeca festival, Eileen Walsh was named best actress for her performance in the Irish drama Eden.