Last night, in what is fast becoming an amiable tradition, the good people from the Dublin Film Critics Circle gathered to hand out their awards for the James Dublin International Film Festival. Ms Tara Brady, president of that august body, was on hand to break a bottle of champagne (surely Irish whiskey) over the vessel and welcome Mr Gavin Burke as this year’s appointed host. The sponsors’ products were swilled back at the Irish Film Institute, while high quality jokes were delivered comparing our poll to another being counted elsewhere in the nation.

Voting members show off their high brows. L to R: Mr Paul Lynch, Mr Gavin Burke, Ms Tara Brady.

Brian Jennings,partner of the late Michael Dwyer, turned up to give out an award granted in our old friend’s name. The Michael Dwyer Discovery Award, instituted to acknowledge fresh new talent, went to the smart young people from Still Films. That company, a tightly run collective, has delivered a truly superb series of documentaries over the last few years. You may have seen Seaview, their picture set in the old Mosney holiday camp, or Pyjama Girls, a moving, funny study of life in Ballyfermot. Their latest film, Build Me Something Modern, doesn’t sound like an obvious idea for a doc — it’s an examination of modernist Irish architects’ experiences in Africa during the 1950s and 1960s — but it is handled with such verve that we felt no reluctance in giving them this year’s prize.

L to R: Nicky Gogan and Maya Derrington from Still Films; Brian Jennings, the warm voice of RTE Radio News.

The best Irish film went to Carmel Winters’s Snap. Other high quality domestic productions receiving prizes included Enda Hughes’s Men of Arlington, a touching documentary on the London Irish experience, and Juanita Wilson’s highly acclaimed As If I am Not There.

The best film went to a terrific Austrian thriller entitled The Robber. There’s no sign of an Irish release yet, but the picture is picking up such buzz it will surely arrive in our shores before too long. If you caught it at the festival then award yourself a tot of your favourite domestic whiskey.

Here are the awards in full:

Best Film: The Robber

Best Director: Aleksei Popogrebsky – How I Ended This Summer

Best Irish Film: Snap

Best Irish Director: Carmel Winters – Snap

Best Cinematography: Tim Fleming – As If I Am Not There

Best Screenplay: Medal of Honour

Best Short: Kathy Brady – Small Change

Best International Documentary: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Best Irish Documentary: Men of Arlington

Best Debut: Philip Koch (Picco)

Best Actor: Jacob Cadergren (Submarino)

Best Actress: Martina Gusman (Carancho)

Special Jury: Le Quattro Volte

Michael Dwyer Discovery Award: Still Films