Co. Kerry, Ireland — 31 Oct. 2006 — The seventh annual Samhlaíocht Kerry Film Festival culminated Sunday night with a jam packed awards ceremony in the Imperial Hotel Tralee. The Awards had standing room only as filmmaker’s, families, and friends from LA, Texas, Newfoundland, France, Spain, the UK and Ireland squeezed in to celebrate the finest in Irish cinema.

Six talented filmmakers went home clutching their awards in the categories Best Irish Short The Faeries of Blackheath Woods by Ciaran Foy (Ireland), Best International Short Strangers by Asher Goldstein (USA), Best Animation Horn Ok Please by Joel Simons (UK), Best Experimental Nummer Vier by Guido Van Der Werve (Netherlands) and Best Documentary An Embers Glow by Niamh Kennedy (Ireland) with the overall prize going to Best Director Pilgrim by Matthew Darragh (Ireland).

In addition to the regular categories Samhlaíocht also announced the winner of the first ever John Moore Audience Choice Award DVD by Ciro Altabas(Spain) and the winner of The Cork Film Centre/Samhlaíocht Kerry Film Festival Short Script Competition Brídi by Tina Horan (Ireland).

The festival was a resounding success with over 2000 people going through the box office during the week. The weeks biggest Audience went to the Primary Schools Screening presented in Siamsa Tire in association with the Irish Film Institute. Howls moving Castle enchanted 325 students and teachers from schools across county Kerry. The Festival reached 13 different locations this year in Dún Chaoin, Dingle / An Daíngean, Tralee, Listowel and Killarney. 80 Short films in competition were screened alongside 6 feature films in the Education Programme and 11 other featured films. Altogether a total 29 hours of film during the week.

Highlights of the festival included the festival clubs held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. These featured the musical styling of Messiah J and the Expert, Kerrynini – DJ Mek, Drumpound and Paul Murphy. Also of special note was the screening and panel discussion held in IT Tralee on Wednesday night which featured two shorts focusing on the issues of planning laws in Ireland and was followed by a panel discussion on Planning in a Kerry Context which featured Tom Sheehy of Kerry County Council, John Murphy Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Studies I.T.Tralee and Catherine McMullen of An Taisce. The ever popular screening at Gortbrack farm lived up to its reputation with the Screening of “Fleetwood Mac: Rumors” with the director himself David Hefferman in attendance.

The Samhlaíocht team will be very busy for the next week returning films and tidying up but would like to express their sincere thanks to the 70+ filmmakers who arrived in Kerry to support the festival, to their friends and family for joining them and to all the audience members in attendance for making this years festival such a special and memorable event.