A BELFAST-based husband and wife writing duo have received a prestigious award for their feature film in Dublin at the weekend.
Sarah Gordon and Damian McCann won the award at the 19th Writers’ Guild of Ireland (WGI) Zebbie Awards at Light House Cinema Dublin for their Irish language film Aontas.
Aontas won the award for Best Irish Language Script. The movie has also been selected by the Irish Film & Television Academy as Ireland's Oscars entry in the International Feature Film category.
Damian, who is director and co-writer, said it was special to receive the award from fellow creatives.
"It's always nice when you win an award, especially in the creative industries. You're always busy and doing things and sometimes you don't really stop to look at what you've achieved.
"It was special to get this from the Writers' Guild, the most well-respected group in terms of writing in the country. This is a writing award from fellow writers."
DIRECTOR: Aontas director and co-writer, Damian McCann
Damian said it was special to win the award with his wife.
"On a personal level, because it was myself and my wife who wrote this script together, it's something for us both to celebrate," he said.
"It helps that we have an attic in the house, which is our office. You can go up to the office and when you're done, you come down again to the family side of the house.
He continued, "You can be very honest when you're writing with your wife or your partner. You don't tread lightly around them. If you don't agree with something, you just say it!
"There's a risk there too of course, in case it gets personal and you start talking about something that has nothing to do with the script at all!
"It can be stressful but I love it. I don't think I could do it with anyone else apart from my wife, and she is an absolutely incredible writer, I have to say. I'm just delighted that my name is alongside something she has written as well."
WRITERS: Sarah Gordon and Damian McCann on set
Looking ahead to Aontas being put forward by the Irish Academy as their selection for Best international Feature Film at the Academy Awards, Damian said he has always dreamed of the Oscars.
"There isn't one person in the world of filmmaking who hasn't thought about winning an Oscar at some stage, but when you're writing something in your house, in Irish, the Oscars aren't exactly the first thing that pops into your head.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, to be honest. We're not nominated yet. We have to make it onto the longlist in December first. Fifteen films make it onto that list, that's how far Kneecap got for example. That is then shortlisted to five, and they are the nominations. An Cailín Ciúin made it that far."
There is a huge publicity campaign with any film aiming to be an international success, and despite already going global, Damian said there is a whole new campaign scheduled to start again in order to try and make it to the Oscars.
"We have already been to festivals in places like China, Indonesia, America and all round the world. I was very happy with that, to a point, but since this news has come in about the Oscars other festivals have been in contact. So it's great. We thought there was sort of an end to it but now it's all starting up again."
