Two prestigious documentaries for TG4 have beaten off strong competition to take a major prize and win a commendation at Circom, the network of regional European broadcasters meeting in Frederikstad, Norway.
An Píopa (The Pipe ), commissioned by TG4 with funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and from Irish Film Board, won the Best Documentary category and Gualainn le Gualainn, the television history of Irish rugby, won a commendation in the Sports category.
This is the latest major international award for An Píopa, director Risteárd Ó Domhnaill’s documentary chronicling the story of the small Rossport community, some of whose members have taken on the might of Shell Oil and the Irish authorities. It has already won the prestigious Audience Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the 2010 Galway Film Fleadh and the documentary category at the recent 2011 Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA ) and is also shortlisted for this week’s Celtic Media Festival being held in Scotland.
Gualainn le Gualainn is a four-part television history of Irish rugby from the birth of the sport on the playing fields of Trinity College in 1854 up to the glorious Grand Slam triumph in Wales’ Millennium Stadium in 2009. It was produced by Fastnet Films and broadcast on TG4 in November/December 2010.
Circom is the European-wide federation of regional television broadcasters and has a membership of some 300 television stations spread across 38 states. Its programme competition for the best and most original work from all of its members is one of Europe’s most prestigious and is keenly contested.
