Press Release – For immediate release
Thursday 8 December 2011
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has today (8 December 2011) marked International Human Rights Week by opening applications to the 2012 ICCL Human Rights Film Awards.
The Awards, now entering their fourth year, invite individual film students, filmmakers, and all those with a strong interest in human rights to submit an original short film focusing on a particular human rights issue. The aim of the Human Rights Film Awards is to provide film students, filmmakers and those working in human rights with an opportunity to contribute to human rights discourse in Ireland through the medium of film.
The Awards Jury has featured a wealth of award-winning Irish film talent, including Kirsten Sheridan, Rebecca Miller, Stephen Rea, Brenda Fricker, Victoria Smurfit and Ken Wardrop.
Speaking today, Jury Member and Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter Kirsten Sheridan said:
“The ICCL Human Rights Film Awards is truly going from strength to strength. For three years it has encouraged Ireland’s finest film talent to apply their craft to human rights issues, and the quality of the shortlistees and winners over the past three years is testament to this. I am delighted to be part of the competition as it enters its fourth year, and look forward to seeing what important human rights challenges will be tackled in this year’s crop of entries”
The competition will also feature a strand focussed on young people called the ‘Human Rights in Under a Minute Challenge’, which will launch in the New Year to coincide with the beginning of the news school term.
Full competition details, application forms, and films and testimonies by past entrants are available on www.humanrightsfilmawards.org.
ENDS
ICCL Spokespeople are available for further comment.
For more information, please contact:
Walter Jayawardene
Communications Manager
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
9-13 Blackhall Place
Dublin 7
Ireland
Tel. + 353 1 799 4504
Mob: +353 87 9981574
E-mail: info@iccl.ie
www.iccl.ie / www.humanrightsfilmawards.org
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
The ICCL Human Rights Film Awards 2012
The launch of the 2012 ICCL Human Rights Film Awards marks the competition’s fourth year as a unique fixture in the Irish film calendar – Ireland’s only human rights-focussed short film competition. The competition invites individual film students, filmmakers, and/ or those with a strong interest in human rights to submit an original short film focusing on a particular human rights issue in or related to Ireland.
The aim of the Human Rights Film Awards is to provide film students, filmmakers and those working in human rights with an opportunity to contribute to human rights discourse in Ireland, grappling with issues which affect some of the most vulnerable members of Irish society through the medium of film.
Over the past three years, the competition has produced shortlisted films of outstanding quality which cast light on a range of human rights issues in new and creative ways.
Since 2011, the competition has also widened its reach to younger people in second-level education through the Human Rights in Under a Minute Challenge and the Human Rights Film Awards Schools Project – which will remain a feature in the 2012 competition.
From the date of the launch (today 8 December 2011), applications will open for the submission of an original short film focusing on a particular human rights issue in, or related to, Ireland.
The deadline for receipt of entries will be Monday 16 April 2012
Of the entries received the Awards Panel will shortlist five for deliberation by the Jury and screening at the ICCL Human Rights Film Awards Gala in summer 2012. Following the screening the ICCL Human Rights Film Awards Jury will announce the winning film.
Prizes for the 2012 competition will be announced on the competition website in the New Year.
Full details, including videos of past shortlisted and prizewinning films, are available on www.humanrightsfilmawards.org
The ICCL ‘Human Rights in Under Minute Challenge’ and Schools Project
Last year saw the introduction to the Human Rights Film Awards of a new strand of the competition, aimed at younger people. The ‘Human Rights in Under a Minute Challenge’ calls on young people to create their own 30-60 second human rights film, which will join the shortlist for screening at our Awards gala in summer 2012. This branch of the Awards will launch separately in the New Year to coincide with the new school term.
The ICCL has also developed a set of teaching materials on human rights and film for use in secondary schools, particularly in the CSPE curriculum. The materials use a number of the shortlisted films from past Film Awards shortlists as points of discussion for various human rights issues and as inspiration for student-made short films on human rights. The resource has been rolled out to professional in-service teacher training sessions in association with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), and is available via the Awards website – www.humanrightsfilmawards.org.