GALWAY FILMMAKER Linda Bhreathnach has won the Irish Screen America’s Rising Star Award for a short filmmaker for her film Adulting which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh during the summer.
Adulting, written, produced, and co-directed by Bhreathnach, who is from Connemara, and who also stars in Ros na Rún, has also been selected to screen at the Irish Screen America Film Festivals in New York and Los Angeles, as well as at The San Francisco Irish Film Festival. The award will be presented at the LA festival, which runs from September 22 to 25.
“After carefully watching everything we screen for the festival we’ve selected six Irish talents we are proud to showcase in our programme, talents we want to support, thank and promote for their hard work in their field,” said Eibh Collins, manager of Irish Screen America, on behalf of the judging committee. “Linda was selected for the clearly vital roles she had in making Adulting the fantastic short that it is."
Adulting, which Bhreathnach co-directed with Justin Davey, has been called "quirky, insightful and unique" by the BAFTA winning writer Ferdia Mac Anna, while Pól Ó Muirí in The Irish Times, described it as "a poem of a film".
The film explores the pressures and anxieties exerted by social media and modern life, such as the pressure to travel, to have the ‘perfect’ life and be ‘happy’. “I wanted to write something that was contemporary and that represented modern Irish women in a way that felt realistic and authentic to me,” says Linda.
The cast includes Linda Bhreathnach (Corp agus Anam ), Carrie Crowley (Vikings, Fair City ), Paraic Breathnach (Jack Taylor, Breakfast on Pluto ), Emma Eliza Regan (Jack Taylor, Darkness on the Edge of Town ), Sean T Ó Meallaigh (Vikings, An Klondike ), and James Riordan (Lipsinkers ). The film was shot in Galway city and Connemara. Cinematography is by Justin Davey. The director of photography is Lakshike Serasinhe.
