Love it or hate it, crime drama sure does pay for second year running

No surprises as ‘Love/Hate’ and ‘What Richard Did’ dominate awards

At the awards, clockwise from top: Jack Reynor, best actor for What Richard Did, with Madeline Mulqueen; Charlie Murphy, best TV actress for Love/Hate; Tom Vaughan Lawlor, best TV actor for Love/Hate photograph: cyril byrne
At the awards, clockwise from top: Jack Reynor, best actor for What Richard Did, with Madeline Mulqueen; Charlie Murphy, best TV actress for Love/Hate; Tom Vaughan Lawlor, best TV actor for Love/Hate photograph: cyril byrne

No surprises as ‘Love/Hate’ and ‘What Richard Did’ dominate awards

Before it got under way on Saturday night, actor Chris O’Dowd tweeted that the Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) awards would be the “annual Love/Hate prize-giving night”, and so it turned out to be once again.

The RTÉ crime drama series, which this season has cemented its reputation as one of the best ever to be screened on Irish television, added another five Iftas to the seven it won last year.

“The novelty hasn’t worn off with Love/Hate,” said best television actress Charlie Murphy when she accepted her award, and that clearly extends to the academy’s judges.

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Creator and writer Stuart Carolan texted his mother the word “hat-trick” having won three successive Iftas for the Love/Hate script.

There were no surprises either when the south Dublin drama What Richard Did won five awards including best picture – making it a second successive best picture award for its producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures. Last year they won for The Guard.

Rising star

What Richard Did star Jack Reynor won the best actor award.

The film has already propelled Reynor into the big time. He recently landed the lead role in the blockbuster franchise Transformers directed by the king of popcorn schlock Michael Bay.

“There is not a lot I can say about Transformers at the moment. I would love to talk about it,” he said, but added that Bay would “kill” him if he did.

The event in the Convention Centre Dublin was decidedly light on A-list names, either foreign or domestic, but Reynor’s star is on the rise.

He’s only 21 though, and underlined his youth by thanking his mother for “the freedom to achieve my dreams”, dedicating his award to his five- and six-year-old siblings watching at home.

Reynor lost out in the best newcomer category to Kerry filmmaker Gerard Barrett, who won the award for his debut feature Pilgrim Hill shot with a €4,500 loan from his local credit union in Listowel.

Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Brendan Gleeson, has continued to establish himself as a respected actor in his own right by winning best supporting actor for his performance in Anna Karenina. Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey also won an Ifta for Anna Karenina.

One small step for an actor

O’Dowd, looking tanned having been in Los Angeles in recent weeks filming the HBO series Family Tree, won an Ifta for his semi-autobiographical drama series Moone Boy which won best entertainment programme.

“I’m very lucky. I’m like a toddler spewing up broccoli among very giant men,” he quipped.

The BBC drama Ripper Street, which was filmed in Ireland, won two technical awards. The best documentary went to Mea Maxima Culpa – Silence in the House of God, about protests by four institutionalised deaf men against sex abuse in the Catholic Church. The award was dedicated to former RTÉ and Irish Times journalist the late Mary Raftery.

The best current affairs programme when to BBC Spotlight for Sean Quinn’s Missing Millions.

The best sports programme went to When Ali Came to Ireland, which was about Muhammad Ali’s famous visit to Ireland in 1973. Among those present at the awards were Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan and the Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar, who confessed to watching very little television because of his hectic schedule, although he did get to see the film Lincoln recently.

“I thought it was real, a good representation of what politics is about. It is full of good people who have to say things they don’t really believe in to achieve great things.”

Winners Film and TV

Best film


What Richard Did (Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Element Pictures)

Best director

Lenny Abrahamson, What Richard Did (Element Pictures)

Best actor

Jack Reynor, What Richard Did (Element Pictures)

Best actress

Ruth Bradley, Grabbers (Forward Films, High Treason Productions, Samson Films)

Supporting actor film

Domhnall Gleeson, Anna Karenina (Universal Pictures)

Supporting actress film

Bríd Brennan, Shadow Dancer (Element Pictures)

Best film script

Malcolm Campbell, What Richard Did (Element Pictures)

Special Irish language

Lón sa Spéir – Men at Lunch (Sean and Eamonn Ó Cualáin, Sónta)

George Morrison feature documentary

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Trevor Birney, Eimhear O'Neill, Ruth O'Reilly, Below The Radar)

International film

Argo (Warner Bros)

International actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln, 20th Century Fox

International actress

Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone, Studio Canal

Television drama

Love/Hate (Suzanne McAuley, Steve Matthews, Octagon Films)

Best actor TV

Tom Vaughan Lawlor, Love/Hate (Octagon Films)

Best actress TV

Charlie Murphy, Love/Hate (Octagon Films)

Costume

Good Vibrations, Maggie Donnelly (Canderblinks Films)

Director of photography

Seamus McGarvey, Anna Karenina (Universal Pictures)

Editing Film/Drama

Nathan Nugent, What Richard Did (Element Pictures)

Current affairs


Spotlight: Sean Quinn's Missing Millions (BBCNI)

Documentary

Congo 1961 (Akajava Films)

Entertainment

Moone Boy (Grand Pictures, Baby Cow, Hot Cod and Sprout Pictures for Sky 1)

Factual

The Radharc Squad (Tyrone Productions)

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy is a news reporter with The Irish Times