Films from Ireland, England, France, Belgium and Lithuania figured among the award-winners at last night's closing ceremony of the Murphy's Cork Film Festival. The highly successful event recorded admissions in excess of 20,000 - an increase of over 25 per cent on last year's figures. Among the prize-winners was the Dublin playwright Paul Mercier, who won the Claire Lynch Award for Best Irish Debut Short Film for Before I Sleep, starring Brendan Gleeson as a middle-aged man trying to cope with becoming unemployed.
The award for Best Irish Short went to Kevin Liddy for his picture of bullying and brutality in an Irish military camp in A Soldier's Song. The Audience Award for Best Irish Short was given to Declan Recks for Quando, a comedy involving three young men who perform in a band. Another comedy, Enda Hughes's Flying Saucer Rock'n'Roll, starring Ardal O'Hanlon, won the prize for Best Black-and-White Short.
The award for Best International Short Film went to the French entry, Majorettes in Space, directed by David Fourier. An English entry, John Smith's Blight took the Best European Short award, while another English entry, Georg Mirsch's Insight took the Synergy Award for Innovation.
A Belgian entry, Benoit Mariage's The Signalman, received the Audience Award for Best International Short, and the Lithuanian film, Goodbye, directed by Inesa Kurtlietyte, was voted Best Black-and-White Cinematography.
Following the awards presentation, the festival closed with Ang Lee's American drama The Ice Storm, starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Earlier in the evening, the festival unveiled its first "surprise film", which proved to be the Mexican movie Deep Crimson, directed by Arturo Ripstein.